Flak Tartrum and the Lightning Curse
by Daowaver32
Summary: Flak Tartrum was just your average dropout, works part-time, not a lot of money and still lives with his mom. What can you expect, he's 15. However, there was always one thing that plagued him. The Lightning Curse. This story is set in the Percy Jackson universe, but the focus is on new characters instead of existing ones. Don't worry, there will be returning characters.
1. In Which My Mom Sells Me Off

Just a story I whipped up. I wanted to write a story set in Rick Riordan's Percy Jackson, but it was kind of inconvenient, so I made a derivative. Think of this universe as a little different to Percy Jackson's. Hope you enjoy.

Disclaimer: I don't own this. Well, even though this is sort of half-fanfiction, I more or less consider it Rick Riordan's.

Turns out, when your book is named The Lightning Curse, you start to hate lightning. A lot of people do, it's bright and it makes heaps of noise. A big crack scares all of the pets onto the coach. They mess the place up, and you have to get over the lightning. Great, who likes lightning? Well, me, apparently.

My name's Flak Tartrum, like the flak vest and tantrum, except that the n wasn't finished. I was once normal, just boring average life. You know the deal. Hang out at home, work part time jobs all day and mess around with flowers all day. By the way, I'm 15, and I'm a dropout. That should be enough for introductions right? Yeah, that's enough.

It was a sunny day, which quickly turned stormy. Wonderful. I love storms. My mom and I were stuck inside our flower shop. She ran the place and I worked here part time occasionally. Though if you were to look back on my total job experience, flower shop employee would easily be most of my experience. What can I say? My mom works me hard.

"Flan, you think that storm's going to let up soon?"

I frowned at the nickname, then at the storm. Yes, my mom calls me Flan, instead of Flak. Back when she was young, she'd always loved flan, eaten them every day apparently. So, naturally, she made that my nickname.

"Nah, I don't think so. Speaking of which, I need to grab groceries."

I grabbed an umbrella out of the umbrella rack in front of the store. The umbrella rack had a box, filled with money. Really, the umbrellas were supposed to be free, but people kept walking over to the cashier to pay for them, so we made a box.

"Be safe out there! And be quick!"

I ran out of the store, looking up through the transparent umbrella. Lightning strikes were fairly common in the city I lived in, every now and then you'd see a lightning strike hit someone. They were usually fine. Usually.

The grocery store and our flower shop were on the same street. There was no problem just popping over and buying a few groceries. I could even make multiple trips without worrying about anybody stealing anything.

I had nearly reached the grocery store until I looked up. Just a little check, you know. I saw the rain, pouring down onto the umbrella, almost hitting me, stopped by a flimsy piece of plastic. I kept looking, still thinking something might happen. The lightning quota hadn't been met today.

The lightning quota was something I'd invented. Ever since I was 5, lightning bolts had decided to hit things everyday. Once a day at least, but never to me. Then, once I reached 10, it hit twice. The bolts now shot closer to me, maybe even to me. Now, I was 15. You can probably guess what happened next.

I moved back as quick as I could. I couldn't let myself be fried after all. The lightning bolt struck the ground where I once was and the rumbling of thunder pierced my ears. The irritating noise made my clamp my hands over my ears. I looked up, having to see through the rain, since my umbrella was fried. A second one came.

I tried to dodge, I really did. But when you had a long day of work and had barely dodge lightning, you were tuckered out. And so, I was hit and brought to the ground. My body began to convulse a little bit, but otherwise I was fine.

"Flan!" My mom shouted from inside the flower shop.

She hastily grabbed an umbrella and her medkit and ran over to me, making sure I was okay. She applied all sorts of medicine, most of which I couldn't identify, and bandages on me. I was silent the whole time.

I formed a slight smile, watching my mom fuss over me. She had the right, but it was kind of funny how overprotective she was. I was about to get up, when I saw the clouds. The clouds were especially heavy today and seemed to gather around our position. They rumbled, and even I could see what would happen.

"Mom!" I shouted. I pushed her back, right before it came.

The pain, well, how do I describe it? It's like a hot shower, you feel it all throughout your body. But with fire ants. Imagine a whole hoard of fire ants biting you inside and out. But, they're all on fire. And-you know what, I'll spare you the details. Point is, it hurt. A lot.

I was all frazzled out by the end of it. I laid down on the ground unsure if I had even survived it. My mom looked at me, cupping her hands over her mouth, as if I had died. I looked up to the sky, thinking it could've been a cruel joke. Then I blacked out.

When I woke up, I could still feel the shock in my body. Like it was travelling around it. It was like a fly in your room. It bothered you from time to time, and you did want to stop it, but you couldn't. That sort of fun thing, and you see why I hate lightning.

I was in my room when I woke up. Everything was just as it was. My bed was messy as ever and my windows were cleaner than the rest of the room. The flower pot next to my bed held an azalea. It was a type of flower that meant taking care of oneself, temperance and fragile passion, though I hear that in China, it also symbolised womanhood. I was raised on the language of flowers by my mom.

I decided to go downstairs. I walked through the hallway to the stairs and I was about to walk down, when I saw my mom, who seemed to be talking to someone else. The stairs obscured the person talking, so I couldn't even tell you how they looked like. Without a second's thought, I rushed down the stairs.

"Flan, could you bring over the begonia?"

The begonia huh? Begonia means to beware, this was my mom's way of saying that she was mad. Whenever I saw this on the table, I would be extra careful not to mess anything up. She always smiled when she was mad, a facade to draw the naive prey in.

"Here you go." I placed the begonia in the pot on the table. This was when I finally took a look at our visitor.

She was a blonde girl, who looked about my age. Maybe a little older. Her hair was messy, several streaks parting away from the rest of her hair. She did have a ponytail, but it was haphazardly done. She was wearing form-fitting jeans and a plain black shirt. For reasons unknown, she came with beautiful silver earrings shaped like a stick of some kind. I don't know earrings man. She was cute. Though I didn't mean anything by it, I just thought she looked nice.

"You must be-" She paused, as if letting her ears go pink before continuing. "Flak Tartrum.

"And you?" I sat down next to my mom, trying to make an intimidating face. If mom brought out the begonia, I had to do all I can to be on her side.

"I am Selena Fairi. I was discussing your-" She paused again, this time covering her mouth. Her cheeks puffed up. She wasn't doing a good job hiding her laughter. In fact, my mom started laughing too, though she was much better at hiding it.

My mother continued in her stead. "Condition. According to Selena, you aren't safe here, at least not anymore."

Selena went on a tirade,"I'm sorry ma'am, but it's true! You saw the lightning bolt that struck thrice, that isn't normal. Striking twice is already a freak coincidence, but three times is much too much to be a coincidence."

"And what can you do about it?" My mom asked straightforwardly. She folded her arms as if she wouldn't hear more of what Selena had to say. And she was just laughing a few minutes before...

Selena closed her eyes, probably thinking. She opened them again, her eyes filled with confidence. It was as if she believed everything she had to say, like no one could refute her. I silently prepared to listen to her explanation.

"We can take him to our city, diagnose his condition and cure it. I promise you it won't take more than a week," Selena assured us. I wasn't too sure about this. I mean, a total stranger that was your age comes into your house and assures you and your mom that your lightning curse can be cured. Sounds impossible, and probably is. The worst part was that my mom looked as if she believed her.

"Mom, are you actually considering this?"

My mom turned to me, and put on a gentle face. The calluna on her ear, seemed to shine. Callunas meant protection and that wishes will come true. When I was young I gave her that flower, not knowing what it meant. "Flan. You've had that condition for two-thirds of your life. At any moment when you were small, you could've died."

"Mom-" I tried to say.

"You know the lengths I went to." My mom cut me off and ended our little argument. I knew what she went through, I definitely did. The amount of times I went to the doctor was unbelievable. I wasn't worried about travelling to another city and staying there for a while, I've been to summer camp.

"But, will you be okay, mom?" My mom's eyes shifted sideways.

"I will. I might have to sell some of our books to pay for your treatment, though." I frowned a little at that. It was easy to hold a sentimental connection to our books when they were all we had. We never went out on trips and we always worked. Books provided a recluse for us. Selena seemed to notice my expression.

"Oh, there's no need to pay us. In fact, we'll recompense you for letting us study your son's condition." She smiled, as if to sweeten the deal.

I couldn't help but notice something in her face. I don't know, something was off. Then I realised what felt off. It wasn't her smile. It was her eyes. They were an enchanting blue, not unlike the ocean. Like the ocean, they held something deep within, a boundless curiosity perhaps, and that boundless curiosity was directed towards me.

"Really? You'd give us money for letting you study my condition?"

"Yes." She leaned over to my mom's ear and whispered. I couldn't hear them, but by the expression on my mom's face, I could tell she was excited.

"Deal." Mom had never said anything faster. "I'll let you have him for a month, if necessary."

"Mom!" I said a little louder than I wanted to. She gave me one hard look, smiled and left to pack my things. I gave Selena a confused face and she shrugged.

"We're going now?" Selena shrugged again. She picked up her bag and went to the door. She opened it and tilted her head towards the door, beckoning me to come forth.

"The sooner the better," she said as she walked out. I ran after her and I saw her car.

Her car was bronze. Strangely bronze, but shining in the sunlight. The car seemed fortified, unlike other cars. I felt like the car was a monster truck combined with a tank, all compacted into a medium sized car. Once I snapped out of my shock, I realised I forgot something.

"Wait, I'm not prepared. I need to grab something from the flower store. Be right back." I ran to the flower store and rummaged around. The flowers I was looking for weren't anywhere on display. We must have been running out, so I ran in the storeroom. I managed to pick out the flowers I needed and stuff them into a bouquet.

I ran outside and passed the bouquet to my mom, who cleaned it up. She made the bouquet look gorgeous, and even added a letter in it. "Thanks, mom."

Selena called to me, "Come on, get in." I looked back to my mom, who simply waved goodbye. I felt like I had to do something more than just wave back, but I didn't. Just like my mom, I waved back.

I climbed into the back seat, next to Selena. I looked to the front seat, seeing that there wasn't a driver. There wasn't even a driver's wheel or pedals. I looked to Selena worriedly, as the car started to move. She pushed me back into my seat. I took that as a sign that I shouldn't have worried.

After a while, I had to say something. "Selena."

"Hm?" Selena turned her head to me. It had been quite a while, as the car had moved from city to forest. She was looking out the window, admiring the trees.

"Here. It's a dark pink rose, one of the few we have left in stock." I waited for Selena to grab the rose. She fidgeted on the spot a little bit, and after a while, she managed to take the rose. Her ears were pink as she admired it. I started to admire her rose too, before I noticed something wrong.

"Oh, sorry. It's thornless." Selena continued staring at the rose and only stirred after we ran over a branch.

"What's the problem with the rose being thornless?" She looked to me inquisitively.

"A thornless rose means love at first sight. What I meant to give you was a dark pink rose with thorns, which would've only meant gratitude," I explained. I thought Selena would've felt awkward, misunderstanding the meaning of the rose, but she simply turned back to look out the window.

"Oh,"Selena murmured to herself," So that's why their roses always had thorns."

"Whose roses?" I had to ask. She was hiding many mysteries with her and I felt I had the right to know.

"It should be fine to tell you here. The children of Demeter's."

I instinctively muttered, "Demeter? The plant goddess from Greek Mythology?"

"Yes, our city is-" Selena's eyes widened. "Get back!"

I turned to look out my window. I barely had time to even recognise the thing before it struck the car. The car spun several times and crashed into a tree. The car no longer moved and the bouquet of roses I brought for the doctors scattered in the car. Selena and I were struck by the many roses. Fortunately, the car didn't blow up, but, unfortunately, we couldn't get out. The tree was blocking the way from Selena's side of the car, so we could only get out from mine.

I took a second look out the window, this time looking for the thing that attacked us. I couldn't see it. I started to worry, was it a lion or something? Maybe it was a big boar? Regardless, I couldn't see anything from inside the car.

"Flak. Open the door, open it fast."

I nodded and tried to force my way open. The door was jammed, but there wasn't anything I could do to fix it. I rammed it multiple times, but I couldn't get it to move. It was locked in place, there was no way I could break the lock in the car.

"Of course Galin's car would be too good. Now we're trapped in a big coffin just waiting to die!" I kept looking out my window, trying to see the thing. A tree was blocking Selena's point of view so we were both focused on my window.

"If you don't mind me asking-"

"I do." So, she gets meaner in tense situations.

"What was that?" Selena sighed, yet still answered my question."

"A monster. More precisely, the Erymanthian Boar." I thought to all the greek stories I remember reading about. I thought I remembered the name, but I didn't.

"The Eri- what now?" Selena crossed her arms in frustration.

"It's the big boar that Hercules captured. Surely you remember his labours?" I didn't. He was never that cool of a hero to me. He seemed cool and then I read about how he cleaned the horse stables and I had to stop.

"Okay, but how did he win?" Selena would have punched me by now if she couldn't control herself.

"He drove it into the snow, then used his brute strength to carry it."

"Right. And we're in the middle of summer, stuck in a car," I stated the obvious.

"Coffin. The air conditioning might break soon, so we might die of carbon monoxide before the boar kills us," Selena corrected me.

"Huh? But wouldn't the boar break through the car?"

Selena explained even that, "The car's made of celestial bronze. It's one of the strongest metals in the world and is brutally dangerous to any monster."

"But not the boar," I muttered.

"It has tusks, and very thick skin. So, yes, but not the boar." We sat there in silence, not knowing when the next attack would come. If I had to guess, the boar was waiting for us to come out.

"Can't you call your friend?" She turned to me like I was an idiot then thought on it.

"Galin? No, I don't think so. He shouldn't have outfitted the car with communication." Selena climbed to the front seat of the car, while talking. "But, we can try."

I followed along to the front seat and sat in the would-be driver's seat. Selena saw the radio in front and messed around with a few buttons. Nothing worked and I tried banging on it. Selena sighed and decided to see if it was voice activated.

"Hephaestus Complex, room 407. Galin Vale." The car hummed and the radio swivelled around. It disappeared into the car and a big screen appeared. The screen slowly lit up and began to show a face. The face was eating instant noodles.

"Oh, Selena! I see you discovered the coms on the car." The face, I mean, the guy turned to us. He put down his instant noodles and smirked.

"Galin. The car." His smirk grew into a big smile and then without us even knowing it, he began to talk excitedly.

"Yeah, I know right? It's great! All that work for months on end and it's all worth it! Imagine if we could mass produce it? All demigods would have safe travel anywhere!" He spread his arms as if expecting applause. I felt sad for him so I clapped a little bit. Selena however, banged her hand on the car.

"Galin. We're being accosted by the Erymanthian Boar! Tell me you have a tracking device on this thing!" His smile shrunk into a frown.

"You don't even have a steering wheel or pedals," I pointed out. Selena was about to slap me until Galin answered.

"I don't. Why would you want monsters to track you down? If I did install a tracking device, I'd be telling every monster in the area where our base was."

"Also, I think your air conditioning system is poisoning us," I pointed out again. Galin responded normally.

"Yeah, it probably is. We're not too good with that. Wish I'd grabbed Cull to help out."

Selena grabbed the sides of the big screen. "Galin. Do grab Cull to help out. We're being slowly poisoned to death."

"Alright," Galin nodded. He moved out of frame, not standing up to do so. He must have been using a swivel chair.

We sat in silence again. Once again, I broke the silence. "At least we'll be safe. Carbon monoxide is slow, and the area can't be that big."

"It is that big. It's absolutely massive. We have children of Demeter and Dionysus maintaining our camouflage after all."

Galin wheeled back into view. "Yep. No way we can find you guys soon enough."

I raide my hand to my chin and thought. I came upon an idea. "Galin, how do we break the car? Can we short-circuit it or something?"

"Why'd you ask that? You have a taser?"

"No."

"Then why? You're a child of Demeter right?" He must have assumed that from looking at the scattered roses in the back seat. Selena took that chance to clean herself a little bit.

"No, my mom's a normal woman."

"Huh." Galin seemed to space out a bit before continuing. "Yeah, you can short-circuit it. You'll need something strong like a lightning bolt though. You a child of Zeus then?"

"I don't know. But I have this condition where lightning tends to strike near me or at me everyday," I explained. Galin nodded expectantly and muttered.

"The lightning curse."

I nodded. "I think if I focus enough, I can call the lightning."

"I'll ask Cull to help you out with that too." Galin turned his chair around. "Maybe he can do something."

"Thanks Galin," I said. Selena finished cleaning up. She grasped my hand and squeezed it.

"I hope you know what you're doing."

"Yeah, me too," I responded, not looking at her. She was probably angry with me.!

I sat in blank silence, focusing as hard as I could to summon the lightning. I could always sense the lightning right before it came. I didn't have lightning-fast reactions, I could predict when it came and sometimes call on it. Point is, I had influence over my lightning curse.

"Flak. Before we die, I have to apologise for dragging you into this," Selena unexpectedly apologised. I wasn't in the mood for apologies and I was a little angry I couldn't summon the lightning straight away.

"Thanks, maybe tell me what this is all about too."

Selena smirked a little bit. "If we survive. No point talking about this now, if we die."

"Then tell me your god parent." I didn't let Selena off. Her smirk faded and at the moment, I knew our moods were worsening. She was trying to help uplift my mood by apologising and admitting her mistake, but I rebuffed her.

"It's not someone you'd know of. She's the wife of Eros. Her name is Psyche, goddess of the soul." I turned to her.

"She cheated on her husband? The god of love itself? Isn't she worried Eros might do something to her?" I worriedly thought about what Eros might do to Selena. She was Psyche's bastard child after all, he might make her fall in love with a tree or something. Or worse, me.

"Yes, but gods are like that. All of them cheat, all of them lie. They're super-powered humans who think cheating is okay."

"What about Hera? Or Artemis?" I asked. I thought about this situation. Bastard children of gods who might or might not have superpowers living in a city who offer to treat me. And I might be one of them.

"Obviously, excepting them. Hera and Artemis swore to never frolic with men. Hestia too." Selena smiled a little bit. "And before you ask, we do get superpowers."

"How'd you know-" I widened my eyes. Did she read my thoughts? Could she have read my thoughts the entire time?

"I can read souls. I can also see ghosts, but that's not important right now."

"But, that was a thought." I screamed in my head. I wanted to see if she flinched. She didn't and I was sad.

"Screaming in your head doesn't work. I don't read minds, but souls. I can't tell your exact thoughts, but I can understand the gist of it."

I became not sad, happy even upon hearing that. "Oh, cool. So that's why you were blushing!"

"Any girl would blush when a guy tells her they're cute." She started blushing now. Every time I looked at her, she seemed to grow even cuter. Like it was amplifying itself. The cuteness, I mean.

"Stop that."

"Stop what?"

"Stop thinking I'm cute."

"But you are-"

The lightning struck the car. Selena jumped from the sides and tucked in her legs to avoid touching the metal parts of the car. I tried to open my door, ramming it. The door opened.

"Out!" Selena ordered.

I squeezed through the door as quick as I could. The boar was right before me, threatening to flatten me against the car door. I froze on the spot. The boar squealed, watching me for any movements. If I moved, Selena wouldn't be able to get out before the car would be forcibly locked by the boar. I had to prepare to leap away from the car, before the boar decided to charge arbitrarily. We both stood there, unwilling to move. Maybe if I kept standing, the boar would leave.

The boar squealed. I leaped away on instinct, dodging the boar. Its tusk scraped my leg, and I began bleeding even more. I clenched my fists as I thought. There had to be a battle plan. I could charge it into the trees, but the boar probably wouldn't take any damage. Suddenly, I realised I was holding something. I opened my hand, and it was one of Selena's earrings. I rubbed it on instinct, perhaps to calm myself down.

*Bang, bang, bang!*

"What?" I turned to Selena, who was banging against the car window. She pointed to her right arm and made a swinging motion. Naturally, I ignored her and stared at the boar.

The boar squealed again, having just rebounded off of the car. My arm seemed heavier now, even though it was my leg that was injured. I looked to my arm for a second, and somehow, I was holding a bronze mace.

I didn't have time to look at the mace. The boar shrieked and charged me. I had only a split-second to think before the boar ran me through and possibly eat me. I don't know what boars eat, probably bacon and truffles. In that split-second I leaped up the car. I didn't dare to let go of the mace. I thought that it might have been celestial bronze, so I was holding onto it for dear life.

Selena banged the car roof just as the boar charged again. I didn't know if the boar could jump up the car, so I was prepared to dodge again. I didn't know why, but I trusted my body to react if the boar did jump up the car. If it did and if I was lucky, it would break the roof and Selena would be able to help fight it.

The boar didn't make the jump. It hopped, sure, and it also broke a side mirror, but it didn't make it. I could hear vague screaming from inside the car and vague screaming outside it. I looked up, the vague screaming was in fact lightning rumbling in a cloud, thunder, and possibly Selena. Clouds were rumbling in the sky, about to send down lightning. If I could get the lightning to strike the boar then, maybe, just maybe, the boar would die. It could get heart failure, I don't know.

The plan I formulated wasn't my brightest plan. I jumped again, but not away from the boar. I jumped straight onto its back. I reached the mace out and I managed to place it underneath its tusks before it could shake me off. The boar squealed and rampaged around, but I managed to stay on top of it. I had to use all my force to avoid getting thrown off.

"Stop the rodeo already!" I shouted. Selena looked worriedly at me as I slammed onto the car window. I couldn't even check my body for any extra injuries, the boar was moving that much. It moved like a rodeo, slowly ramping up its shaking, but without a limit. I've never ridden a rodeo, but seeing what I'm doing right now, I think I'd do good.

I slammed onto the side of a tree. The tree branch scratched my back and almost pierced my skin. I clenched my teeth as the pain spread throughout my body. Oh, it was going to feel worse soon. The entire time, I was summoning the lightning bolt. I knew it was still in the sky, waiting until I was thrown off. It wasn't sentient, but I knew its intention. The lightning curse wanted to hit me where it hurt most.

Selena looked at me, staring at my eyes angrily. She focused hard on me, and then collapsed. She was still awake, watching my battle. I kept grappling with the boar, trying to think up new ideas when one came to me. It was risky, but it was all I got.

I pulled up the mace with all my strength and took it out from underneath the boar's tusk. I looked to the sky and raised my mace up high. The lightning bolt from earlier hit the car, so I guessed, no, I knew celestial bronze was a conductor. It would act as a lightning rod and help me draw the lightning towards me.

I gripped the mace tight and I called. The boar was making more effort to throw me off, and it was working. But the lightning was getting ready to strike, all I had to do was stay on. The boar slammed me on the car roof, but I managed to stay on. I stared straight at the boar's eyes and I felt it. The lightning struck the mace.

The mace was now channelling the lightning. It didn't hurt me or the boar whatsoever. For the first time in my life, I felt like I had control. The boar threw me off, but I landed on my feet. I stared the boar straight in the eye and I charged.

I ran fast, faster than ever before. Within a second, I was right before the boar. It didn't have time to charge or do anything. I gripped the mace with my two hands and slammed it onto the boar's tusk. I tore the tusk clean off. The boar charged and stabbed my shoulder with its remaining tusk. I raised my hand and gripped the tusk. I felt I was empowered.

Another lightning bolt crashed on us. It flowed through me, empowering me. The lightning bolt that had threatened me my entire life was now under my control. I directed it straight to the boar's tusk. It electrocuted the boar and traveled straight into the boar. I directed it to wreak havoc, mess with the boar's brain, nervous system, but most importantly its jaw. I jammed the mace into the boar's now open jaw and shoved it in. The boar dissolved into dust, somehow leaving the stray lightning bolt behind. The lightning bolt jumped into the boar tusk I knocked off.

"Selena I did it!" I cheered. Then I remembered she was stuck in the car. I walked over to the boar tusk and picked it up. The boar tusk was trembling with electricity. I looked at the item, through the lightning. I could tell it was a boar tusk with a supply of lightning as powerful as lightning bolts. It could shoot only 3 bolts a day.

I decided to test it out by shooting the lightning towards the car. The lightning did its job and opened the car door Selena was leaning on. I ran over to her and held her up. She opened her mouth to speak to me, but closed it before she spoke any words.

"Selena?" I shook her. She didn't seem to wake up. Her body was limp and for a second I was afraid the lightning from the lightning boar tusk killed her.

"Shut up," she said.

"Oh, so you're fine after all. I'm glad." I would've went for a hug, but Selena wouldn't have liked that.

Selena stood up shakily and yawned. "Me too, me too. If you could just fix the air conditioning system, then we could sleep in the car and wait."

Selena went back into the car and laid on her back to rest. I took her words to mind and began examining the air conditioning system. She must've accounted for if I didn't know anything about it, so evaluation must be a thing among demigods, I guess. I worked on the system, sending small electrical shocks to jumpstart some parts. The parts that required physical labour to fix were hard, but I made do. As I fixed the system, I thought back to my strategy. The lightning rod was my own idea, but how did I know it would work?

"Selena? Did you-" I trailed off, "tell me something? Back then?" Selena turned over to face me and nodded.

"Yes. You were unsure about the nature of celestial bronze, so I filled in the gaps for you. It's hard talking about that sort of thing through souls."

I sat on the roof of the car, trying to keep watch. Anything could come out of the woods and attack. "Thanks, by the way. You saved my life."

"You're welcome, though it's not everyday you hear that from a child of Zeus," Selena muttered the last bit. I still overheard it though.

"Child of Zeus? And what was that last part about?" I laid down on the roof of the car as Selena answered my question.

"Duh, what else would you be?" Selena said. "I don't mean to be stereotypical, but children of Zeus tend to be overconfident, proud, full of themselves. All of them are annoying except for Cull."

"Even me?" I asked, knowing the answer. Selena was especially grumpy when she was tired.

"Yes. You done yet?" I banged the roof in response. I thought to myself, was she so tired she didn't notice me getting up here?

I closed my eyes and attempted to sleep, but I couldn't. Selena went to sleep fast. Her snoring wasn't what bothered me, I couldn't place my hand on it. The sun was slowly rising to the top, so I couldn't see any stars. I wished I could though, just to see some constellations. I finally fell asleep, with my last thoughts being of the stars.


	2. Arty Gives Me A Golden Apple

Yeah, so people actually read this. Cool. Give a review sometime. Thanks, and enjoy.

Disclaimer: Don't own universe. Don't own book. Rick Riordan owns it. Why am I writing this, this is in the Percy Jackson fanfiction section.

Nonexistent bar that didn't work for the last chapter.

So, as it turns out. Discovering your godly parentage also means you start having weird dreams. I was in a grand treasury fit for a queen. The treasury was just as big as an apartment complex, the elevator at the end surely leading to more floors.

The treasures being kept in the treasury weren't weapons or the sort. There were beautiful jewels and other items. The pedestals lining the room carried a magical item each. I saw a necklace with a jewel the size of a fist. A feather, drab and dreary yet still exuding an aura similar to the others. There were other items, but I didn't have time to check them all before a peacock ran in the room.

The peacock was drab and dreary, just like the feather. It probably came from the peacock. The peacock strode over with the grace of royalty, studying each item. For a second I thought it owned all the items, but the peacock started staring at the feather. I shrugged and waited by the elevator. I tried to press the elevator button, but I couldn't touch it.

The peacock walked over to the elevator and pressed the button. I followed it into the elevator. The elevator had a bundle of buttons on the side. There was one that lead to 'The Garden of the Hesperides' and another that was called 'Randomiser.' The peacock pressed the latter.

The elevator didn't feel like it was moving. The elevator door closed and that was it. Great, I even had to wait in my dream. The peacock seemed annoyed at it too and shrieked. The voice of the peacock was lulling and I felt like I could sleep like a baby at any moment. The sound of cows mooing woke me up and I decided to close my dream ears to avoid falling back asleep. I had to see where I was.

I kept my mouth shut, partly because I didn't like the peacock and partly because I was afraid the peacock would hear me. The peacock was probably a magic peacock that could kill me with a scream.

The elevator stopped. The doors slowly opened and the peacock cautiously moved forward. I thought that we might have ended up in its mistress' bedroom because of the smell, but we weren't there. I moved along with the peacock, cautiously watching for any intruders. I sincerely hoped that whatever was out there couldn't hurt dream me.

From the looks of it, the floor was another treasury, but with even more precious treasures. There were doors in the back that must have lead to more. There were jewels the size of heads this time. Not only that, the pedestals had lights that showed the best parts of each item. There was a pile of golden apples laid in a basket, a bird cage holding various cuckoos and a fenced off area with cows. Strangely, the dung that the cows should've shat out didn't touch the floor. The dung disappeared, presumably to a toilet?

"You shouldn't be here." I turned around as fast as I could and took a step back. The peacock shuffled around nervously and looked as if it was getting ready to squawk for help. I looked ahead, battle ready. For some reason, the boar tusk was still in my pocket. I didn't know if it would work, but it was my only weapon. So there I was, preparing to fight for my life with a peacock by my side.

I couldn't describe the being before me without reducing her presence. She looked like a human girl with hair as silvery as the moon. Her eyes were piercing silver and she wore clothing with a silver theme. She really loved the colour huh? But, her appearance was the least of my worries. Just being near the thing was pressuring me more than I had ever felt.

"I can't believe Apollo managed to predict even this," the goddess muttered. It was a fair assumption, she mentioned Apollo. Considering the silver themed attire, she was probably Artemis. I still didn't know if she could see me, but before I could consider trying to sneak off she spoke again.

"You two should run along now," Artemis said, though it felt more like a command. The peacock squawked defiantly and I had a sudden urge to shut it up. Shoot it with the boar tusk and burn off all of its feathers. I didn't know why I felt that way. I've dealt with grumpy Selena who was far more annoying yet I felt like if it were her instead of the peacock, I'd kill the peacock any day.

I realised it was Artemis. Her presence was making me want to hunt. No, not hunt, kill or to massacre. I just wanted to kill the peacock, stop its squawking. I had regarded it as an impromptu ally against her, but now I wanted to kill it. I stayed my hand, remembering Orion.

He was a guy who went insane and started killing animals willy-nilly. He killed anything that moved until he was killed by a scorpion. People thought it was sent by Apollo who didn't want any men near his sister, but I always thought it was Artemis who sent the scorpion. She was the goddess of the hunt after all. She hated people who killed animals without reason. If you wanted to kill an animal, you had to do it with clear reason.

Artemis picked up one of the golden apples and held it up high. My attention was wholly drawn to it. I couldn't think of anything but the apple. Looking at the apple in all its glory, I couldn't help but reach for it. The apple had to be perfectly ripe, and its taste had to be amazing. It looked like the most wondrous treasure in the entire world. I had to have it.

Artemis tossed the apple towards the elevator and I followed. The peacock squawked behind me but had no chance of grabbing the apple. An arrow shot into the elevator button, breaking it. The elevator door opened and the apple rolled in. I rushed in and managed to grab it before the peacock did. I looked towards Artemis, feeling immense gratitude towards her.

"The golden apple will help you, use it when you most need it." I stared at Artemis in shock, breaking out from my trance. "You know its power firsthand. I think you would know how best to utilise it."

I wanted to speak out, make some sort of excuse as to why I was here. I wanted to ask her questions about gods and their legends, if every greek story was real. She stared blankly in response and turned to leave. My eyes followed her to the back of the room. She opened the doors that laid back there and left.

Suddenly, my vision moved. I felt powerful, just like the lightning crash, but even more powerful. My presence felt like a shard of the moon and I could sense the constellations in the sky. I could sense the moon and its dark side. I lamented on the moon's dark side, forever peppered by meteorites. I felt it sad that such a wonderful thing was forced to hide its ugly side away.

I realised I was watching things from Artemis' point of view. She was walking through the next room, which was a hallway. I was lucky that I couldn't hear her thoughts as I was sure I would disintegrate upon doing so. I remembered the tale of Dionysus' birth, where Zeus showed off his true godly form and disintegrated Dionysus' mom. Artemis' thoughts would surely count.

"How cautious of you," Artemis shared her thoughts with me. I was confused, very much so.

"How should I address you?" I thought. Artemis thought back in laughter. She laughed a few tiny laughs before answering me.

"You may call me whatever you wish."

"Is Arty okay?" I stammered. I don't know why, Arty was the first name I came to. I could've went with Lady Artemis or Milady, but I went with Arty. Good job Flak.

Artemis thought on it a while. "It is okay young one." I thanked her on that.

"You must be wondering why I brought you here." Arty opened the hallway door and showed me why.

A weapon unbefitting of a queen, but befitting of a king. It was shaped like a lance with a serrated edge. The lance crackled with electricity, and thunder could be heard rumbling inside. It was made from a material I had no business knowing. The lance was mounted on a pedestal, angled upwards into the hallway.

"Zeus' house?

"Not exactly," Arty answered me. She deliberated on it but did not continue. She looked at the lance, focusing her vision on it. Because of that, my vision was filled with the lightning lance.

My mind focused on it, trying to evaluate the lance with all its power. I knew it wouldn't work, but I tried anyway. The lightning lance was incomprehensible to me. Unimaginable. I couldn't tell how it crackled with lightning or how it managed to emanate the sound of thunder.

"You heroes. Always delving into danger headfirst." Arty chided me. I knew the only reason why I survived trying to evaluate the lightning lance was because I was in Arty's head. She protected me.

"If you don't mind me asking-"

"I don't."

"Thank you Arty." It felt weird using that nickname. It felt disrespectful, as if I was calling my mom by her first name. Though, I suppose she was greater in position.

"What exactly is that? I thought it was a lance of lightning, maybe Zeus throws it at people in the form of lightning bolts. But, after I tried to evaluate it, I couldn't understand it."

"Its power is naturally beyond human comprehension. To put it within a demigod's knowledge, think of it as a focused lightning strike. The original lightning bolt would be more akin to a focused nuke. This lance of lightning cannot be called a lightning bolt."

"What's the difference?"

"The astrapí are gifts from Zeus to the other gods. Most primarily, his closest family members, like his children. I have one myself. Any non-mortal can use an astrapí, but it is exceptionally dangerous. The original lightning bolt is what we call Kyrios."

For the first time in our conversation, Arty spoke greek. I could, for some reason, understand it. I suppose it was from being in Arty's head. Anyway, astrapí means lightning and Kyrios means master. I suppose Zeus would want to show off his master weapon. With that in mind, I wandered about the weapons of other gods. If they had weapons as powerful as Kyrios.

With the reveal of that knowledge, I decided to evaluate the astrapí again. I looked at it and called out its name. The astrapí reacted violently, trembling with power. Despite that, I continued to evaluate it. It was made by an elder cyclopes, one of the few remaining ones alive. Forged in an underwater volcano in a batch of 4 other astrapí. I still couldn't identify its material despite having the ability to look into its history. The astrapí shook, almost flying off the pedestal it was on. It was then that I decided to stop. I didn't know why I could see its history. The only difference was that I knew its name.

"Flak Tartrum, it is time for you to wake up," Arty snapped me out of my thoughts. "Be careful with your newfound knowledge and keep everything you learn from here a secret."

My viewpoint switched back to my dream self. I silently thanked Arty again and prepared myself to wake up. I thought it would've been quick, like how I came into this dream. It wasn't. The first thing I saw when I came back to my dream body was a bolt of lightning. The lightning bolt pierced my body.

I didn't feel pain, I was empowered once again. I felt my body being pulled along by the lightning bolt as it streaked pass the walls of Zeus' house. My body was pulled along through the house and rushed down a mountain. The mountain was what I assumed was Mount Olympus. The lightning bolt streaked along various cities and I realised I couldn't see Olympus anymore. It was as if Olympus had never existed at all. I recognised some of the cities as the lightning bolt passed through a familiar forest. It travelled closer and closer to the forest and shot towards a car. My actual body was on the car.

I woke up with several people looking at me. There was Selena and two other guys. The first guy was a teenage boy who looked older than me and he had an eyepatch. He was clearly still stuck in 6th grade. The other person was a middle-aged man. He had a confident look about on his face.

"You took your time waking up Flak," Selena complained. I jumped off the car roof and waved high to the guys.

"You snore." Selena grabbed the earring from my hand I still hadn't given her back. She attached it to her ear and sighed. That wasn't what I saw however. I saw her reaching into a golden apple and pulling out an earring from inside it. I still had the golden apple, but Selena couldn't interact with it.

"Anyway, I wanna do some introductions. I'm Franz and you must be the new kid. That's Cull, by the way." Franz reached out his hand for me to shake. I tossed the golden apple to my other hand and shook his hand.

"Franz, take care of the car while I check on Selena's and Flak's injuries," Cull spoke up. Franz obeyed his order without question.

"Cull, you have no idea what happened here. The Erymanthian Boar charged at us out of nowhere!" Selena talked animatedly, while Cull checked her wounds. She was much more lively with Cull than with me. I suppose it was because she actually knew him.

"Hey, why did the boar disintegrate?" I asked quick before Selena could exaggerate the story. Cull continued checking her wounds as he answered my question.

"The boar was a monster right? When monsters die, they disintegrate except for a singular reward. That's your prize. What did you get?" I took out the boar tusk and held it up. Cull finished checking Selena's wounds and asked for the tusk. I passed it to him hesitantly.

"A boar tusk that can shoot lightning. I think it can shoot 3 times a day." Just like my curse, I thought.

"Did you evaluate it?" Cull asked nonchalantly.

"I guess. What is evaluation anyway? I just took a look at it and I understood what it did." Cull nodded, as if he totally expected me to understand what I did. He began to inspect my shoulder and apply medicine.

"That's something every demigod has. Otherwise how would we best utilise our prizes?" He smiled as he bandaged up my shoulder. Selena went into the car and rummaged around. She brought up a small backpack and tossed a packet towards Cull.

"This is Ambrosia. Food of the gods. It has medicinal properties, so you should eat one." He handed me a packet filled with golden cubes. I fished one up and popped one in my mouth.

"Good huh? Always tastes like your favorite food," Cull noticed me standing there in shock and spoke. Or at least that was what Selena told me once we reached the city. I was in shock, of course I didn't notice.

I didn't get to taste my 'favorite food' until later. What I did taste almost ruined my life. I can't describe it to say the least. Instant gratification with overwhelming pleasure. Eating it felt like it hit all the spots. I wouldn't be surprised if my tongue exploded from the immense taste. I guess you could call it, the most wondrous taste in all the world, the ideal taste. It had to be golden apple.

I realised the instant I finished it, I had to have more. I tried to take a bite out of my golden apple, only to taste my hand instead. I stared confusedly at my hand for awhile and I think I might have tried again if it weren't for Arty snapping me out of it.

"Now you know the true danger of the golden apple. All other foods will be insufficient for any that take a bite. But do not worry, I will erase that memory. You will never know the golden apple from ambrosia ever again," Arty reprimanded me. She almost left without a trace, leaving me one last message. "When you meet my Hunters, do not mention my name. They'd become quite jealous."

I couldn't pay attention to that last part. It was committed to memory, but I didn't care. I could only think of the taste I lost. That's why I can't tell you what it tasted like, I don't remember it. I could only guess what it tasted like, I just knew it was better than everything else.

"The car's fixed, let's go!" Franz shouted at us. Cull and Selena both went in the back. I managed to get shotgun with Franz. Would the front seats both count as shotgun?

Franz looked over to me, grinning. "You're going to love Epineio!"

I put the golden apple in my bag, hoping to never see it again. I thought back, rationally this time, to what Arty said. She said I now knew the true danger of the golden apple and I certainly did. There was a reason behind my never wanting to see the golden apple again. I was afraid I would take a bite. I knew I couldn't bite it, but the fear still laid present in me.

Even though Arty erased the memory, I felt I wouldn't be able to resist taking a bite out of it. And if I did take a bite, I would probably go insane. Get into a state of depravity and do all I can to have some more. Forget my life and live a living hell where all I could do was search for golden apples. Thanks, Arty.


	3. I Compete With Apollo

Thanks for reading the other chapters if you made it this far. Drop a review sometime and enjoy. Also someone teach me how to do line breaks. Or at least a way to separate the author's note from the actual story.

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan has ownership of universe though I guess we could say the ancient greeks and romans had ownership of the legends that inspired this story too.

Line Break Placeholder

I really didn't expect the city of demigods to be abandoned. I mean, it's a city of _demigods_. Children with godly superpowers. You'd expect they live in a stronghold, what with the monsters attacking them, but they didn't. Some buildings were well furnished, while others weren't. The ones that were furnished were furnished with outdated furniture and technology, as if a person from years ago decided to stage a comeback.

"What was this place called again?" I had to ask again. The name was hard to memorise since it was, I think, in greek.

"Epineio. Shouldn't be too hard to memorise. Take Haven and translate it, easy!" Franz laughed. His laughing offset my morbid interest in his eyepatch.

"Translate it to greek right?" Franz looked at me with one eye and blankly nodded. Interrupting his laughing fits made him strangely neutral. It was as if laughing was happiness to him. He loved it when he had it, but he wouldn't miss it much if it was taken away, as if he had become far too used to sadness to care.

"Flak," Cull said, "We are nearing the hearth. It should be almost lunchtime when we arrive so we'll eat first before introducing you to the facilities."

"We'll also be introducing you to the rest of the people here," Selena chimed in.

I looked back and nodded grimly. Introductions. You love them or hate them. Personally, I am of the latter opinion. It's always awkward when you meet new people and realise, 'Oh yeah, I gotta say something about myself.' And then you realise you don't have anything to say about yourself they already know. Especially with Selena around.

"You sure love thinking to yourself huh?" Selena retorted, proving my point. It's annoying that she could read minds, er, souls. Nothing you think is private when your thoughts are supposed to be a private thing. I'd appreciate it if Selena didn't read my mind all the time, but it seemed to be an unconscious ability. I think it's like automatically evaluating when you look at a person.

"It is." Thanks Selena and I don't suppose you'd say your welcome. She sent me a soul-message saying those exact words, but squeakily. Like a mouse. A cute mouse. The cutest. Ever.

Selena didn't blush, but I knew she was thinking about it. She looked in Cull's general direction, as always. Cull was like a dad, I guess. She always looked to him for support in any situation. Anyways, I have to wrap this part quick or Selena will be reading it again.

Oh, she already did. She just sent me a soul message to stop thinking. I looked to her and smirked, picking up a rose from the floor and giving it to her. Cull's eyes widened in surprise. He awkwardly nodded and looked out the window, as if he knew this would happen.

"We're here newbie! Welcome to town square, our very own hearth!" Franz shouted into my ear. We all got out the car and walked towards the hearth. I expected a big fireplace in the middle of a circle, but the real thing was way bigger than what I thought.

There were many people sitting around the fireplace all around tables. The tables were those traditional camp tables that you always see in movies. The tables were sparsely spread out and people were walking around. Some were animatedly chatting, while others were sitting down, waiting for food. Cull walked over and shouted to signal the beginning of lunch. His shout was like thunder and it made food appear on the tables like magic.

"This is our eating area. We eat near the hearth because the hearth is warm and good," Selena explained. "The hearth is a gift from Hestia to Cull. According to him, he accomplished a great quest for her and was given the hearth. With the hearth, he decided to fashion this place into a haven for demigods."

I whistled, nodding along to Selena. "That is some backstory. Does it cook pizza?"

"Yeah, of course it cooks pizza! You're Flak Tartrum right?" I looked over to the voice. It was a guy I'd already seen before. Galin, who was still in his chair.

"Yeah, we met already."

"Let's reintroduce ourselves. I'm Galin Repu, son of Hephaestus. I inherited his strong arms, amazing forging ability, but his weak legs too. As you can see, I'm stuck on a wheelchair," Galin said cheerfully.

"Oh. I'm-" I tried to apologise. All this time I thought he was in his chair by choice, not saddled onto it by life. He may have had superpowers, but were they even worth it when he has stuck on a wheelchair all his life?

"Don't pity me. If you're going to pity someone, pity Ramona. She's deaf." Galin pointed to a girl who was frantically signing to her friends. "Look, don't think any less of us Hephaestus children for having disabilities. As far as I see it, we have the best powers with just a few strings attached."

"But, still-" I had to say my condolences, but Galin wasn't taking none of that.

"Shush. Just shut up." I could see Galin dealt with this kind of thing everyday, and he hated it. He was beginning to wheel away, over to another table. I could tell he was frustrated, thought I'd be different. I had to call out to him.

"I'm Flak Tartrum, son of Zeus, apparently. I can call down lightning and jump. I've been plagued with a lightning curse ever since I was 5," I introduced myself. Galin stopped on the spot, as if thinking what to do with me. He didn't turn around, but decided to give me a thumbs-up for understanding how he wanted to be treated.

"I would've dropped you off on Harry, if not for that last bit." Selena took my hand and dragged me to one of the tables. I noticed she still had the rose in hand and I debated telling her about it. In the end, I didn't.

Selena tapped the table twice and various foods began appearing out of nowhere. They came with plates, cutlery and empty glasses. She grabbed a piece of the apple pie and ravaged it. She ate fast, faster than I'd ever eaten. I noticed my favourite food on the table too, pizza. Pizza Margherita, just cheese and tomato sauce. My absolute favorite. And I had a whole box for myself too. I ate the slices fast, not forgetting to eat other food in between slices. Selena noticed my strategy and followed along.

Selena tapped her glass, whispering, "Green tea, from the can." I followed along by wishing for chocolate milkshake. What? Chocolate milkshakes are good.

If I had to sum up the meal, I would say it was beautiful. Nearly as good as a bite of golden apple, probably. I think. It had every food you could ever want, except for obscure ones that needed exotic ingredients or expensive food. I'd never eaten pizza that good before and I was definitely satisfied. Selena kept humming happily too, which was a sign of how good the meal was. She was even happily removing the thorns of the rose, which made me happy.

Selena's happy face was something to think about. Selena was very easy to read. When she's angry, she's pouting and when she's sad, her head hangs low like a dog's tail. She shows her emotions on her sleeve and I liked that. Made her feel less home invader and more acquaintance crashing over.

"So, what facilities do we have in this city?" I asked, interrupting Selena's humming. I was interested if the hearth had anything more to offer considering it could've been a big heater. I was also thinking about where I'd live and places for training. I mean, I was attacked by a monster, I want to be able to train.

"Well, let's see. Let's start with the hearth." I realised Selena could read my soul and that I'd essentially planned out the rest of our day.

"The hearth was special to the ancient greeks. It was the ultimate safe haven for strangers. You used to be able to run into a town and hide away in front of the local hearth and no one could hurt you. Hearths are especially important to us. It deters monsters from chasing us. Hearths are symbols of Hestia and Hestia is an Olympian. Monsters are scared of them."

"So, can't we bring portable hearths?" I thought it was a smart idea but Selena looked at me as if I was an idiot.

"No, it needs to be a permanent fireplace area. Anyway, the city hearth covers the entire city and protects it from any monsters. Monsters love demigod blood, since it contains diluted ichor."

"Ichor is what again?" I had an idea of what it was, but I wasn't sure. This time, I wasn't being an idiot.

"God blood. They love god blood, but it's hard killing a god, though technically gods can't die. So, they go for the next best thing, demigods." I perked up, remembering the boar.

"That was what the boar was after?"

"Yes, and not bacon and truffles like you thought. Though it probably does eat bacon from time to time." She nodded and I nodded along with her. We were in silent agreement that the boar was probably a cannibal.

"Knew it. On to my new home?" That was what I guessed where we were headed next, but Selena shook her head.

"Training grounds first."

The training grounds were an area of buildings that were sectioned off. Keep in mind that the buildings were mostly abandoned, so the others were free to renovate and destroy as they wished. We came to an area that was still on ground floor. It was a standard fighting arena on an empty lot and apparently Selena had rented it out for us.

"Here, take your pick. There are swords, spears, axes, bows and other weapons. You've seen my weapon, a mace, though I use two maces instead of one."

I looked through the weapons. I didn't have any preferences, since my only fight was me using lightning like my life depended on it, which it did. I could try the mace again?

Selena had to tell me this. "Don't think about trying maces. You were horrible back there."

"I was trying, and the important part was that it worked." I walked over to the table and picked out a nice-looking wooden sword. "Fine, I'll try swords."

Selena shrugged and picked out two blunt wooden maces. She walked over to one side of the arena and I, to the other. I looked at Selena, studying her. She kept her arms away from each other, so as to not hit the other. She had a blank look on her face. What I noticed most, was how the rose was nicely placed behind her ear. It had a nice contrast to her blonde hair.

We were both standing there, waiting for some signal to begin. I realised that Selena wanted me to strike first, maybe to gauge my skill. So, I did.

It went horribly. I lunged at her, but she shoved her mace into my stomach and with her other mace, smacked my head. Within seconds, I was sprawled out on the floor. I groaned and tried to reach for the sword, but Selena put it back on the table.

"Next weapon, Flak. Swords are even more horrible on you, so maybe you should try bows," Selena suggested. I nodded and shakily got up.

She handed me a bow and quiver and brought out a shooting target. The target was at the other hand of the arena, but Selena assured me if I was any good, I'd at least hit it first try. I put on the quiver over to my waist. I was pretty sure it was called a field quiver when I put it on my hip. I couldn't see the arrows without looking back, which could be dangerous in a battle. I also couldn't keep count of arrows, but it should be easy memorising how many I had at a time.

I took out an arrow and spun it. It didn't fall, so that's a good sign. I managed to nock the arrow quickly. I didn't know how far back to pull the bow string, a bad sign. I kind of pulled it back to where it felt right, so I pulled it to under my ear. I think this bow form was Japanese, but I couldn't be too sure. I realised the bow wasn't built for this type of shooting, so I slowly let the string go back to its neutral position. I pulled it back again, but this time to my chin.

I aimed. I could see the target clearly. When you had no practice, you had to shoot with feeling. I couldn't tell where my shot would go or even whether I was shooting correctly. Selena wasn't telling me, so I had to guess everything. I let go of the string and the arrow went sailing. It soared through the air, shooting straight towards the target. I thought I had enough power, so I didn't aim higher. The arrow would hit, though.

"Nice shot. You might be good with bows, you should try that again," Selena complimented me. She waved to me and left to do other things. Before I could ask her about what she was going to do, she sent me a soul message saying when she was coming back. She was coming back in 2 hours.

"Yeah, that's pretty good." I looked at the shooting target, riddled with black spots. They were, had to be magic. The shooting targets repaired the arrow holes in them while having a black spot over the hole. This allowed me to see where I shot yet it wouldn't interfere with the arrow when it hit it.

"90 out of 100! Nice, nice, nice!" I heard someone come into the arena. It was a guy who looked a little younger than me. 13, 14 maybe?

"Thanks. Who are you?"

"That doesn't matter, you'll find out soon enough. Anyway, you're good at this, and by that I mean really good!" He complimented me again. I smiled a little bit.

The guy, who had shining blond hair, tapped his bracelet. The bracelet turned into a bow. He smirked and tapped his back, where a quiver then appeared. I looked at him weirdly, then I realised my quiver was being filled up with arrows.

"Let's have a little bet, you and me."

"Alright. Nothing too big though." I nodded. If he put out a big bet out of nowhere, I don't think I would've been able to refuse. I was feeling more competitive, I wanted to compete with this guy and I didn't even want to win. I just wanted to see how I matched up with him.

"That's okay, that's okay. How about the loser owes the winner a favour? If we draw, I'll let you win. Let's swear over the River Styx on it." Thankfully, a favour wasn't too big, even if it was over the River Styx. What was he going to do, make me eat snake?

"We will shoot at the same time, at the same target. That will make things more challenging." It certainly would. We could be shooting at the same spot, and our arrows could meet mid-flight. That would be a loss on both our sides.

"Reset!" Blond guy shouted. The shooting target's black spots disappeared. "Let's start!"

We nocked our arrows. He was faster. We would only shoot at the same time, so he had to wait while I focused. I closed my eyes, and focused. I was feeling competitive after all, I'd do my best. We shot.

We hit the bullseye. The arrows didn't hit each other in mid-flight. 1 each. I focused again, feeling that my arms were tired. I had just shot 100 times, and I would have to do it 100 more. Yet, I was feeling energised. I didn't care about my arms until about 30 shots in.

My arms were feeling tired. I felt like I couldn't shoot anymore. The blond guy was good, he didn't miss a single shot. I could tell just by shooting with him that if he wanted to, he could've shot my arrow in midair. Though, of course, he wouldn't get a bullseye that way. He knew I wouldn't be able to go on, and began to egg me on by repetitively nocking his arrow.

If I was being rational, I would've just proclaimed that I lost. A favour wasn't much. Then again, I wanted to compete and at this point I wanted to win. I knew I was being irrational. I knew I wasn't controlling my feelings right. I knew it, so why couldn't I stop it?

I shook my head hard, trying to think of a way to snap out of it. The guy's presence leaked out for a second. I knew this feeling. Yeah, I definitely knew this feeling.

Arty. Though, not her, her brother.

"Apollo? Why are you here?" He smiled devilishly. I didn't like that smile, he seemed he was up to mischief, like picking on a demigod.

"You figured it out, good job! It's too late to back out of this competition anyway, so what're you gonna do?" I prepared to trade blows.

"Draw with you. A favour to a god has to be bad," I answered.

"Nah, I wouldn't ask for much. Just your golden apple," he said, as if the golden apple wasn't worth anything. It was from Arty, after all.

"That's a gift from Arty, so no," I firmly said. I said it so firmly, I felt thunder rumbling in the sky.

"Oh, Arty huh? I knew she'd give the apple to you, but to think she let you call her by _my_ pet name?" The sun shone through the clouds, but the clouds came back.

"Yes, she did." The entire city was now covered in storm clouds. I could feel my anger rising. I didn't know why I got so angry, Arty wasn't anything to me. Yet, Apollo insinuating that I couldn't even say Arty's name made me mad.

"Oh, ho, ho! You think you're so close to little Arty, but little do you know-" The sun shone harder. The sky above the city became like an egg yolk, with the sun as the yolk and storm clouds as the whites. I knew I was summoning those clouds, I gathered lightning in them, prepared to strike.

"Yeah, yeah. Let's get this over with." Lightning struck me. At the same time, lightning travelled from me into the clouds. A strong ray of sunlight shone over Apollo.

"Not scared of a god." We shot once.

"Neither scared for his life." We shot twice.

"How can this boy be?" We shot thrice.

"You're missing a syllable in the second line." Lightning struck my arrows as they traveled. Apollo's arrows grew fire. The shooting target was replaced with each shot. We shot fast, barely managing to talk while shooting.

"Just like Arty, huh? Lightning struck my bow. I used arrows of lightning instead of normal arrows.

"Trying to draw with a god." Apollo decided to use arrows of fire instead of normal arrows.

"You are not my match." At this point, we had shot 90 arrows.

"Next ten at the same time." My hands were truly tired at this point. I attempted to end this early and Apollo smirked.

"I agree, hero." His clothes caught fire.

"What a challenge, I like this." Rain started falling and doused his clothes.

"Let us finish this." He started exuding an aura of heat. It was scorching hot being near him, but an aura exuded from me too. Lightning began crackling from my bow and my body.

We shot our final arrows. Somehow we both managed to nock 10 separate arrows into our bows. The arrows were well on their way to hitting the shooting target. I wiped my head, knowing I'd won when suddenly Apollo's arrows converged into a single arrow. The arrow chased my arrows around, slowly eating them through. I sighed, expecting to lose.

"Hero. Don't take it personally, but I'll be changing my favour. I, sort of, need you to die." I grimly smiled, accepting my fate. After today, I just kind of short-circuited. Maybe after I die, I'd wake up on my bed.

"Great."

Apollo began to aim at me. "As I said, don't take it personally. I'm not angry with you anymore, even if you are an annoying little hero. I'll make sure you get to Elysium safe."

The rain stopped. The clouds gathered toward the middle, obscuring the sun. Suddenly, they funnelled towards us, obscuring both our vision. Apollo's arrow shined brightly, still aimed on me. I walked towards the arrow, feeling tired over today. He won, he should be able to kill me.

Apollo shot his arrow. The arrow traveled through the air. It was fast, faster than all the arrows we had shot. To me, it felt slow. My life flashed before my eyes. They were filled with memories of my mom, taking care of me. I felt warm, happy. I closed my eyes and stood in place, waiting for the arrow to pierce me.

I opened them a few seconds later. Apollo's arrow was stuck in place in front of me. A second later, the arrow dispersed. I looked over to the target, and I saw the result of our competition.

I won. All of our arrows hit, my arrows weren't eaten. That made it a draw, but Apollo said I'd win if we drew. A bolt of lightning struck me again before the clouds dispersed. Immediately, I collapsed. It was like the lightning bolt was an extension of me that did some work. Anything it did applied to me too.

"Your reward. Unfair hero." Apollo scowled at me. He didn't look angry at me, but more like he was angry at what I could do. Maybe he was envious that as a son of Zeus, he couldn't do that like I did.

"I want to be able to say Arty without you killing me," I managed to retort. I couldn't move my body, do anything. Apollo could've killed me right there if he wanted to, he didn't swear on the River Styx for that.

"Deal. Good deal. Great deal, in fact. Amazing deal..." Apollo began muttering. He paced around me, looking at me occasionally. He kept snapping his fingers as if he forgot something important. "There it is."

"What?" I managed to mutter.

"Prophecy, nothing to worry about. It doesn't-" Apollo stopped as if still reading the prophecy. "You'll see about the prophecy. Later. I'm make sure it gets to you. Don't let the beast out again, I have to go."

I shrugged, while still on the ground. Now would be a good time to wake up from this dream, but unfortunately I didn't. I thought about today, all the crazy things that happened in it. I probably wouldn't be able to do that thunderstorm thing ever again and that was okay. Before I could think about my situation more, I blacked out. I dreamt another dream.


	4. We Play Capture The Flag, But Violent

Hey, that's a lot of people reading this. Welcome, thanks, why did you guys skip a chapter? I don't know, do what you want. I'd like it if you guys reviewed and did other things. Reviews are nice. Oh, yeah, this is the last of my built-up chapters, so it'll be some time for the next one. Maybe a week?

Disclaimer: If you've read this far, you know this isn't mine. At some point, I guess I'd add in Percy and stuff. Rick Riordan owns all.

Dreams suck. They used to be good, but now? They suck. Do you ever have that sort of dream that starts going good at first, but quickly spirals into something dark? Oh, and the ending leaves you wanting for more so you hope you have another dream that continues the story line but you don't ever have one? Pretty specific, I know, but that's how I felt right now. Watch.

It was the time of the competition. Apollo and I were standing there, shooting at a shooting target. Then clouds gathered over the sun and the sky became an egg yolk. I sent out a lightning bolt to the clouds. Guess who I was in the dream? I'll just tell you, the lightning bolt.

I leapt from my body to the clouds. I wasn't in control, but I could feel the lightning bolt's feelings and 'thoughts.' Yes, it had thoughts. Yes, it was weird, don't ask any more questions.

Once I was in the clouds, I began to spread all over the clouds. I gathered them together, knowing I had to protect my actual body, er, Flak's body. I shot a lightning bolt at Flak, the dream one. Flak grew empowered, and he was shooting rapidly.

What came next, was the funnel of clouds. But, before that, I saw another figure in the sky. The figure was flying above the sun and was looking at the clouds with interest. I decided to take a closer look at the sun, while the figure took a look at me.

The sun wasn't the actual sun. It was a chariot, a flashy chariot, filled with bling. It must have been Apollo's, though the chariot was pretty tacky. There's no need to drape it in golden jewellery o the point of encrusting the wheels with them.

"What are these clouds? They definitely aren't Zeus'..." The figure began to mutter.

I struck the figure with lightning. I didn't want to do it, but I was watching from another dude's point of view. It was like being in Arty's mind, except that I was along for a ride that already happened. The figure simply took the lightning head on. He brushed his clothes a bit and continued to observe the clouds.

"Doesn't seem to be sentient..." The figure took out a notepad and began writing in it with a pen. "An automaton? No, it's a cloud, even Hephaestus wouldn't be able to make this."

Suddenly, I funnelled the clouds together. It was the fennel that saved my life. I made the fennel cover Apollo and I in an effort to stop Apollo's aim. The lightning bolt knew that for it to live, I had to live, lest it be destroyed by the gods. The figure began frantically scribbling in his notepad.

Apollo's arrow stopped in front of Flak. It dissipated and I, the Flak down below, started talking. I watched this with the figure. The figure wryly sighed and wrote a few more words into his notepad before calling Apollo.

"Apollo! We must go!" The figure called. Flak didn't notice the figure's words. He stood, still happy he won. That idiot.

"Just a bit, Hermes." Apollo kept talking to Flak. He began pacing around me, in that trance of getting the prophecy. His chariot became invisible. I looked at the chariot, noticing I could still see it. I simply knew it was invisible. With every snap, the chariot travelled down and with every other snap, it stopped abruptly. It was like if a couple of kids were playing over control of a car.

Apollo finished up and I fainted. He got on his chariot and rode it into the sky to meet Hermes. Hermes was no longer surrounded by clouds, which meant the lightning bolt had already returned to my body. I looked around, realising I was now floating as my dream self.

I thought back to the lightning bolt. It wasn't me, to say the least. It was a different sense of self. I felt scared once it left me. Well, entered me. One and the other. It felt wrong to have another being lay dormant inside me. It was like a wild wolf that decided to stay by my side. I didn't do anything for it, but it had my company. Sometimes, I might even give it food and because of that it would occasionally fight off threats to my life. It was close to me, yet I knew nothing about it. I knew it could kill me if it wanted to, but it didn't. If I had a choice in that matter, I would drive it off.

"What was that about Apollo?" Hermes asked him. Apollo scowled.

"Things are about to go downhill. Maybe during his quest or after, I don't know." Apollo sounded worried. It was unnerving after our competition. He was so flamboyant and full of himself, I thought nothing could get him down.

"I have never heard you so worried Apollo," Hermes stated. I should probably describe how Hermes looked like. He looked like a young man, with blondish-green hair. His clothes looked like a traditional greek's.

Apollo looked to the sun, the actual sun. "I've worried many times like that. You just weren't born yet."

They didn't seem to realise dream me was here unlike Arty. It was probably because this was in the past, so they couldn't react to dream me. If it was like that, then I didn't know how I was here in the dream. This was just confusing. Before I could think on Apollo and his prophecy more, I woke up.

"Your dreams are weird." I opened my eyes ad saw Selena looking over me. She moved away and I jumped off the bed. I looked around the area. I was in a medical facility. Like a hospital. Selena looked at me confusedly.

"You can see dreams? What did you see?" I asked.

"Yes. Dreams are like sleeping thoughts so I can read them." Selena walked to the exit of the room. I followed her, asking questions as we walked.

"And what did you see? Did you see egg yolk sky?" Selena stared at me with even more confusion. She didn't remember the egg yolk sky. The sky composed of mystery clouds and Apollo's chariot.

Selena stopped me. She covered my mouth with her hand. "Egg yolk sky? What do you mean?"

"I was having a competition with Apollo?" I struggled to speak, but I managed to talk. Selena uncovered my mouth.

"What do you mean Apollo?" She looked genuinely confused. _I_ probably looked genuinely confused.

"Guys! Capture the flag, come quick!" I heard a voice down the hall. Selena grabbed my hand and started to run. I ran with her, barely keeping up. She grabbed both our bags on the way out.

We ran up stairs, across the town square, up and down several other stairs, across alleyways and even through holes in walls. I tried to talk to Selena more, she could read my soul, she had to believe me. Despite that, every person we passed didn't seem to know about the egg yolk sky. It covered the whole city, they had to know about it. Yet nobody looked shocked or confused. That lasted all the way until we reached the top of a building.

The building top had no railings and instead had barricades. It was the roof of a three-story building and was left unfinished, but it somehow looked like it had gone through several battles. There was even a sniper tower.

The rooftop had tables filled with equipment and I could see many people grabbing equipment and putting on armour. Some of them were done and ran down the stairs. They looked like they were preparing for war or something similar.

"We made it in time. Suit up." Selena ran to a table filled with equipment and picked out two maces. She grabbed a bow and tossed me it. She also decided to toss me my bag at the same time, so I fell over.

Selena began to put on various bits of armour, but never a full suit. "What event is this? Is this capture the flag?"

"Yes. I know you're tired from archery training, but you can at least shoot at some people." She grabbed a quiver and tossed in several arrows. She handed me the quiver. I put the quiver on my hip and shouldered my bow.

"Shoot? Are we playing capture the flag, but with actual weapons?" I asked again. She grabbed my shoulder and headed towards the stairs.

"And superpowers. Come on, hurry up!" At that moment, someone decided to interrupt us.

"Actually Selly, I've decided Flak's gonna stay up here with me," Galin interrupted. Somehow he had managed to get up the sniper tower with a wheelchair. Selena scowled and rushed down to join the other people.

"What's happening?" I decided to leave my conversation with Selena to another time. We had to talk about it at some point, but not now.

"Battle. We're reenacting an actual fight, so that when we do fight for real, we're prepared." I started climbing up the sniper tower, with my bow shouldered and my quiver on my hip. I only had a dozen or so arrows in it.

I climbed up to the top of the sniper tower and I began to look out. "So, how is this capture the flag?"

Galin produced a flag from his chair. "The opposing force just needs to reach my position."

I began to wonder how that would be hard. Nobody was protecting the place. Except for me. Oh no. I began to frantically look for my side. People already went to battle. The battlefield seemed to be full of abandoned buildings. There were bridges connecting buildings and alleyways that interwove between them. I could even see people battling in the swirly bit of a car park.

"Am I alone in guarding you?" I began looking for targets to shoot at. I spotted several people crossing bridges that seemed close to ours, so I began aiming at the bridges.

"Yeah. But you're good at shooting, so we should be fine. Also, don't shoot the bridges." I lowered my bow. He was the leader in this situation.

"What happens if we lose?"

"Cull makes us do chores." Galin shrugged. "But, whatever, you know?"

I sighed. "First day at Haven, and I'm already doing chores."

"Yep. I can't really fight, except for shooting with a gun, but that's an illegal weapon." I raised an eyebrow until Galin pulled out a gun. A revolver even.

"You have guns. Of course you do, what would I expect?"

"Wanna know this one's history?" Galin began to wave his revolver around.

I nodded. "Seems cool," I said fast as I shot a person in the head. He had a helmet on, it was okay. Except that he fell off a bridge, I hoped he was fine.

"Its name is Skopeftis. Lame name, I know. But, it has saved my life on many occasions." Galin smiled, looking forlornly at it. He seemed to have many good memories with Skopeftis.

"How so?" I looked towards Galin, interested.

"I went outside the city once. Found a monster."

"Which one?" I asked. I saw a person trying to cross to our building from a bridge. I tried to shoot an arrow at them, but I ran out. I had to climb down the ladder and get some more arrows. I decided to bring my bag up too.

"The one you killed. Was it blind in one eye?" I thought back to when I killed it. I guess I saw one eye pop out. I climbed back up and answered him.

"I guess? I wasn't paying attention." I shot a girl who was climbing up the side of the building. How she managed to do that? I don't know. Is there a god of spiders in greek mythology? God of insects maybe?

"Whatever. Anyway, I was alone. I never used weapons, since, you know." Galin gestured to his legs. "I couldn't even use bows, but I had Skopeftis with me. My little sister had snuck Skopeftis into my wheelchair."

Galin pointed to a compartment in the chair. It was packed together with all the machinery in it. I never did take a close look at the wheelchair. It was tough and rigid. You would expect a seat, two big wheels, handles at the back and perhaps pedals to rest the feet at. Galin had all those, but underneath the seat was complex machinery that was connected to the wheels. I couldn't make sense of any of them even if I tried to evaluate it. I just knew there was a compartment Galin could reach.

"You knocked off a tusk right?" Galin asked. I nodded. I fished out the tusk from my bag and showed it to him.

Galin evaluated the tusk. He looked at it wistfully and began to nod his head. He poked it a few times as if checking its hardness. He put the sharp end to his mouth and tried to blow it as if he was blowing a horn. He frowned when the tusk did nothing.

"We should hollow it out. If we hollow it out, anybody can use it just by blowing it, not just the children of Zeus."

"How do you know that?"

Galin elaborated, "Call it one of Hephaestus' gifts. Our evaluation isn't just figuring out what it does, it also leads us to new ideas. Athena Complex has it too."

It took me a while to offer the tusk. I didn't have a reason to give the tusk away, but I also didn't have a reason to keep it. "Do you want the tusk?"

"Oh, I can have it?" Galin excitedly asked. He gripped the tusk with newfound joy.

"Sure. I don't have much use for it anyway. Better to hand it over to someone who can do something with it." I guess I found my reason.

Galin muttered to himself. He seemed to be on the verge of a breakthrough. "I'm a genius. Ramona'll be so happy!"

Galin must've thought of something else to make with the tusk for Ramona. I smiled. "The enemy's getting closer. By the way, who is your little sister? She must be pretty talented to make a revolver."

Galin grinned. Anyone could see he loved his sister dearly. "Ramona."

I went straight back into shooting. My heart felt lighter after hearing that, as if the burdens I was carrying disappeared. It was always nice to see people like Galin around. I kept shooting and shooting, but the people trying to run into the building seemed to be endless. People aren't dropping off the battlefield since nobody is dying, but some must have taken injuries serious enough they had to leave. Hopefully not Selena, I needed to talk to her.

"Galin. The enemy's getting awfully close." Galin closed his eyes in thought.

"I see that. Flak, it might be a good idea to start shooting lightning now." I didn't know how to shoot lightning. I contemplated trying to make an excuse.

"I don't know how to."

"Well, it's your first day, can't complain. If it's like that then I hope Dahlia gets the flag soon. If Dahlia gets the flag, run to her side and help protect her." Dahlia. I felt like I heard her name at lunch and that I might have seen her, but I wasn't sure.

"What does she look like and who is she?"

"Dark skin, dyed blue hair. Daughter of Poseidon, you'll recognise her by the flag she'll be carrying." Poseidon's daughter. I assumed that meant she could control water.

"Got it." I climbed down the ladder and began to prepare for my incursion. I was only beginning to grab a few more arrows before Galin yelled at me.

"Flak!" I looked up and noticed Galin was pointing towards my left. I dodged to my right and I saw a guy who tried to hit me with his sword.

"That's Harry Griar! He's a son of Ares, be careful!" Galin shouted. I took a close look at Harry. He looked our age, maybe a little older like Galin. Unlike Galin, he was entirely serious. He was clearly experienced in battle. He held his sword in front of him, ready to strike. He didn't have a shield, but he did have armour.

I prepared to shoot at him with my bow. I tried to call on the powers of lightning, but I couldn't. I ignored my failure and began firing. Harry weaved in between my shots, which I considered really fast. He ran close to me, despite my best efforts, and slashed at me with his sword. Remember, I didn't actually suit up yet. So, it hurt.

Harry stepped back, waiting to see if I was going to continue fighting. The wound was on my left shoulder and I desperately needed it for shooting a bow. I was practically useless now. My bow clattered onto the floor. Harry kept observing me however, as if I had a secret trick up my sleeve. He was cautious, and silent. I could see he was a loner, maybe I could use that? Anything to lure him away.

"Flak, just extend the arrow!" Galin shouted again. I took out an arrow, trying to follow Galin's command. Harry saw what I was doing and rushed me. I shook the arrow hard, hoping it would trigger something.

I held the arrow up in front of me, hoping it would block Harry's strike. He would lightly slice my chest with his sword, but that would force me to leave the battle. I hoped that however it happened that the arrow would extend. Extend into something useful like a lance or something.

I felt a weight in my arms. Not just Harry's strike, but something else. I opened my eyes and realised it was a lance. I didn't know why I was so happy that it extended into a lance. Lances felt right to me. After my horrible try with the sword, I felt like lances were right up my alley.

Harry retreated quick, seeing the weapon I now had. He could clearly see this was my first time using a lance, I didn't see why he rushed me. I raised the lance with my right hand, the one that wasn't injured. I didn't want to use my left hand, since my left shoulder hurt. Harry noticed my predicament, and was about to climb up the ladder before I thrust the spear before him.

He slashed my lance away and dove in for another light cut. I stepped back and blocked the attack. He pushed hard and, since I was holding the lance with one hand, nearly launched the lance away. The lance was driven into the ground. I grabbed the part of the lance closer to the edge and tried to slash at him. He parried and nearly ran me through.

"Dead." Harry poked my stomach with his sword. He began to climb up the ladder.

"It's okay Flak! It's your first day anyway!" Galin comforted me from the sniper tower. Harry grabbed the flag and went down the ladder quick. He left down the stairs, presumably to the enemy base. I sighed and sat down.

It didn't take long for a horn to sound. Harry somehow managed to sneak over to the other side without alerting any of us. Well, maybe he did, but we certainly didn't stop him. Galin's wheelchair began to lower from the sky unexpectedly. I looked up and realised Galin's wheelchair was connected to a rope tied to the top of the sniper tower.

"How does that work?"

"Pulley. The other end has a big rock that's slightly lighter than me and my wheelchair. I can go down whenever I want, but I can't get up." I nodded. It made sense. If he wanted to go up someone else only has to pull the other end.

"By the way, can you carry me down the stairs? I'll ask someone else to bring the wheelchair," Galin asked me. I pointed to my left shoulder.

"Right. So, I'm stuck here until you get help." Galin wryly smiled. He reached into his chair and pulled out several tools. He probably wanted to work on the tusk for Ramona.

"We could try to move down the stairs?" I dumbly suggested. Galin slowly returned his tools and turned to look at me. I shrugged.

"Keep a good grip on the wheelchair."

"That was not fun." Galin let out a big breath he had been holding in after we reached the end of the stairs.

"I liked it," I muttered. Galin gave me a stare that seemed to imply that if I suggested we do it again, he would shoot me. I didn't want to be shot so I silently drove him to the medical ward. The Apollo Complex.

Galin told me this as I drove him to the Apollo Complex. Each complex was home to different children of the gods. For example, Apollo Complex had children of Apollo. That meant I would live in the Zeus Complex with Cull. There were 12 complexes in all, though there were 15 shrines. The ten Olympians who didn't swear off fornication, the ones that did being Arty, Athena, Hera and Hestia, each had a complex. Plus Athena somehow, don't ask me how the children of Athena came to be, maybe they just appeared out of nowhere. Anyway, the other 2 complexes were Hades and some minor gods, Psyche being one of them. The shrines were the same as the complexes, having every Olympian though, a generic shrine and one for Hades. Apparently Cull had to convince everyone for the Hades shrine, since nobody wanted a funeral shrine in their city.

"How many things is Apollo god of?" I had to ask. Maybe he picked up the things left over by the other gods.

"I don't know. There's the sun, archery, healing, diseases, poetry..." Galin began to trail off.

"Prophecies?" I suggested.

"Yeah, that too. That should be all of Apollo's main things." I promised myself earlier that once the hectic things were over, I'd begin thinking back on everything.

Whenever I tried to think of events that happened today, I always began with the prophecy Apollo mentioned and the beast. He told me that the prophecy would get to me sooner or later, and in the dream, Apollo told Hermes that things were about to get hectic. That had to be bad, since it was by Apollo's standards, which had to be high.

We reached the medical ward of the Apollo Complex. It was the entire ground floor and the basement. There were a lot of people in Epineio, and Apollo Complex was the only complex that knew how to heal with magic. We didn't want to waste ambrosia after all. Galin pointed to an empty chair and I wheeled him there. I sat in the chair until a guy walked to me and began healing my shoulder.

"Wanna get a prophecy while you get that treated?" The guy asked. He looked prepared to charge me for both, so I refused. Besides, I was pretty scared to learn of the prophecy.

And that was the entire day over with. We ate dinner immediately after and said some prayers. Or at least the ones who prayed to the greek gods, obviously some of us had different religions. I was agnostic, so I prayed whenever I felt like it, if I felt like praying at all. I don't know is basically my religion. It was nice seeing that everybody was allowed to have their own religion even if mine was somewhere in between atheism and normal religion.

Our side, Hephaestus, Zeus, Minor, Poseidon and Athena Complex, had to clean the dishes. The dishes were magically transported to a kitchen where the food was made. Though, I wasn't sure if the kitchen had everything it needed to make all the foods. I didn't see a single pizza oven there. I tried to talk to Selena while we were washing dishes, but she ignored me. Instead, I got to speak with Dahlia. She was cool, and chill with me getting destroyed by Harry. I tried to get her to use her water powers to clean all the dishes but she said it would be unfair to all the other complexes.

Cull introduced me to Zeus Complex. For some reason we had a lot of siblings, I don't know why. My room was 532. I was surprised to learn that the rooms were soundproof. I guess some extra work were done in the complexes so no one would be bothered while they slept. There were also alarms and telephones in the rooms too, not only that, there were showers. I decided a nice hot shower was in order.

It wasn't hot. It was cold. Maybe the Poseidon kids were being mean today, because they lost. Maybe they forgot they were fighting together with Zeus Complex. I wasn't angry, I had a lot of thinking to do in the shower instead.

Today was insane. I learned Zeus was my dad. I killed a big boar with the lightning powers passed down to me. Cull and Franz picked Selena and I up from the forest and introduced me to my new home, Epineio. I had an archery competition with Apollo and he told me of a prophecy and of a beast. He told me to not let the beast escape again. I wondered if he was referring to the lightning bolt inside me or some other beast. I was scared of the prophecy, but I knew I needed to hear it.

"Flak?" I heard a voice call out from the door. I was a little slow in finishing up and that was evident in the caller's face. Selena looked slightly miffed.

"Selena? What are you doing here?" I asked, letting her in. She came in and sat on my chair. I didn't even realise I had my own chair. And with a table to boot. A complete set.

"I believe you," Selena abruptly told me. I looked at her with shock. I closed the door and locked it. Selena looked scared for a second, and I contemplated unlocking it to make her feel comfortable. I did.

"You believe the egg yolk sky?" I asked, kind of excited. Selena looked troubled, but nodded.

"I read your soul and souls don't lie. I know that to be a fact, my mother told me so." Selena closed her eyes as if consulting someone. I began to feel a presence around her. A god's presence.

"Is Psyche here?" Selena looked at me as if I could suddenly see souls too.

"No, but a piece of her is," Selena began to explain, "Earlier today, I went to the shrine. I asked my mother for help."

Selena looked as if she expected me to ask her about that. I didn't know why she did, but I asked anyway. "How does that work?"

"Psyche is less god and more soul. Eros, her husband, made her immortal, but there was a price." I raised an eyebrow at that. Mortals can become immortal? Did that I could make my mom immortal? It would come with a price however, and I think I could guess it.

"Did she lose herself? Her sense of identity?" Selena looked perturbed at the idea.

"No, of course not. Because she was already an adult when he decided to turn her immortal, she had to sacrifice something. I'm not sure as to what it was, but it represented her human state."

"So, she is also a soul?" Selena thought over my question a bit.

She answered vaguely, "Gods are different from humans. Now, to make explaining this easier, have you wondered how she is the god of the soul?"

"She was a philosopher before she became a god?" I guessed based on Dionysus. He was also a demigod, but he became a god. As a demigod he ruled over wine, madness and parties, and that became what he ruled over as a god.

"No, she gained the favour of Hades. Do you know her final task?" I didn't even know Psyche did tasks. Was she like Hercules?

"Yep," I lied. I only realised Selena could still read my soul when she sighed.

"She had to go to the Underworld. Her task was to procure Persephone's beauty ointment. She managed to get around Cerberus, and had to convince Persephone for it. Persephone, seeing how pitiful my mother was, gave her the beauty ointment. Once she reached daylight, she started to wonder how powerful the beauty ointment would be."

"If even Aphrodite wanted it, then it had to be good. So, Psyche tried to open it, what next?" I could fill in the next part of the story. I decided to sit on my bed.

"She found a stygian dream awaiting her. Eros had to save her and convince the rest of the gods. Zeus directed him to feed her nectar and ambrosia, the godly version, to make her immortal in exchange for Eros' services."

"Persephone must've felt bad right?" Even I could think that. I wanted to ask about the stygian dream, but I felt now wasn't the time. It was probably a sleeping beauty thing.

Selena continued, "Yes, to put it simply. She asked Hades to grant Psyche power, so that she would never feel the pain of the stygian dream ever again. Hades granted my mother the power of the soul, and that is why my mother is like that."

"Alright. So, you asked your mom for help, and she sent down a soul that contained a piece of her." I was getting anxious over Apollo's prophecy. I wanted to talk about it fast.

"Yes. She assured me that souls couldn't lie. No matter what, souls cannot lie, especially alive ones. She decided to come along with me, just in case." I wish Zeus answered me when I called for him. I did earlier, in his own shrine accompanied by Cull, but nothing happened. I heard Cull was one of Zeus' favorite children, so I had asked him for help.

"So, you already know the full story right?"

"Not the dream. My mother needs to know the dream to form her conclusion." Selena looked at me expectantly. I grew nervous at that. It was weird seeing a girl who expected so much of me, that expectation being explaining a reasonable explanation of my dreams.

"The dream..." I trailed off. I didn't know how best to explain it. I tried my best to explain it, but I didn't tell Selena about the lightning bolt. I didn't tell her that I was in the lightning bolt and that the lightning bolt was separate from me. That the lightning bolt was its own being. It freaked me out, I didn't want anyone else knowing about it.

"Is there something you aren't telling me Flak?" Selena asked. "My mother is one last step to the conclusion."

"No. That's it. Just Hermes and Apollo talking." I really didn't want Selena to read my soul, or for her mother to. I hoped Selena wasn't able to, even though I knew she could.

"You are." Selena tried to smile in an effort to get me to say it. "I won't ask about it, since you clearly want it hidden."

"You can't read it?" She nodded. She seemed a little happy when she nodded like that.

"I can't read souls that want to keep their thoughts an absolute secret. If you want to keep it a secret, one where you do not want to tell anyone, I cannot read it." I started smiling a little bit. Suddenly, both of us were smiling wryly.

"Thanks. So, what's the conclusion?" I waited expectantly at her.

"The storm clouds you created are not of greek origin. Maybe something went wrong with your birth. My mother thinks that it is because your mother might be a demigod from another religion."

"Other gods exist?" I tried to wrap my head around that. Okay, greek gods exist and then other gods also. So, do they share the world and their things, or do they fight over it? There were lots of questions about everything but I didn't think we had enough time to unpack all of that, so I didn't ask.

"Yes. My mother thinks that it might be because your mother is a demigod from a lightning god, like Thor. I think that you're a roman demigod, instead of a greek one. That would mean you're the son of Jupiter instead of Zeus."

"What's the difference between Zeus and Jupiter? They're the same god, right?"

"Romans and greeks are inherently different people. They're like facets of the same being. Do you remember your mom and her scary mood swings?" Selena looked as if she wanted to smack herself for saying that. Of course I did.

"Yep. One moment she's the kindest person in the world and the next she could be facing down at you like a bull. It's like that?" I tried to imagine Arty as a cheerful girl, kind of like a girl Apollo. It didn't fit her at all.

"Yes, I think. It would explain why I wasn't able to see your dream. That would mean the Sleight hiding the dream was roman instead of greek," Selena surmised.

"Sleight? Like the magician trick?" I thought to the iconic card magic trick where the magician would grab the volunteer's card out of nowhere.

"It _is_ a magician's trick. It obscures our activities and all involved."

"How does _that _work?" Was it like some sort of mist? Maybe it was a sort of fog that obscured one's view and left one feeling like nothing had happened? A glamour perhaps?

"Watch this." Selena raised her hand. I expected to forget she was raising her hand, but a certain object appeared. The object was lustrous, perfect in appearance. I almost jumped at it. There it was again. The golden apple.

"Is your favorite food really that good?" I clenched my bedsheets in an effort to resist. I wanted to relearn its flavour, its texture and the good feeling from back then. My mind was entirely filled with it, again.

"Yes. Can you, can you hand it over?" I began to reach for it. Selena looked at me weirdly and dispelled the sleight. The golden apple disappeared.

"It's not real. You can't eat it." Selena explained the obvious. I sighed.

"Sorry, sorry. Just, don't do that again." I laid on my bed. Selena seemed to pity me a little.

"Well, I had to have my mother help in creating this sleight. You'd only ever fall for a sleight of another religion's god."

"Well, that's good. I won't see it again." I began to mutter. "Not again."

"That means you definitely aren't greek. We'll have to contact the others."

"Or maybe we could listen to that prophecy first? Apollo directed it to me, so that has to be something." I suggested. Selena stood up and walked to the door.

"Then we should visit our Oracle. It's only a short walk to Apollo Complex. We can make it before curfew." I stood up. Selena opened the door and I followed her.

"So I wasn't your grand-uncle?"

"Shut up."


	5. Woody Tries To Kill Me

First of all, thank you Tgm102. You're the only one so far. Nice. Anyway, thanks all who read. Please drop a review, I have no idea if I'm doing anything wrong. I'd like to at least improve my writing, if anything else. Alright, enjoy.

Disclaimer: Rick Riordan owns all, he sees all. He owns this universe. Anyway, references are nice.

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Raise your hand if you like prophecies! Nobody? Yeah, what I expected. But the real question is whether they do good for stories. Oh, you're asking if the ones in real life are worth anything? Why? You're mortal, who cares? Though, I guess I should pay more attention to what mortals can and can't do after seeing some of my other friends in action.

There were penthouses on every complex, where the leading authority figure of the complex lives in. Cull lived in the Zeus Complex's penthouse. The penthouse in the Minor Complex was empty, not given to anyone. Selena said that there couldn't be an authority figure there since every kid has mostly different parents. They'd get angry.

I had seen Cull's penthouse, who was basically the leading authority figure of the city, the 'camp counsellor' if you will. I expected his penthouse to be the best, but it paled in comparison to Apollo Complex's.

The top floor of the penthouse wasn't entirely the penthouse. Instead, it was split to a waiting room and the actual penthouse. The waiting room was cool. It had chairs and tables, many places to play boardgames. I wanted to ask Selena to play a boardgame with me, maybe chess, but she didn't seem interested.

"Go. It's your prophecy." Selena told me. She sat down on a chair. She closed her eyes, I could tell that her mom was leaving. The god presence created by her mom slowly disappeared from the room. I waited until it fully disappeared before inviting her along.

"You don't want to come along?" Selena sighed and answered me.

"The Oracle wouldn't tell it to anyone but you. You are the subject of the prophecy, therefore you are the only one who will hear the prophecy. Even the Oracle wouldn't remember the prophecy despite being the one who says it."

I bit my lip in anticipation. I would be the only one to ever know the prophecy. That sort of responsibility shouldn't fall on my shoulders. I was that kid who just figured out where they fell in life. I barely won my first battle and horribly lost in my second. Was I really the person who could take that responsibility?

"So, I'm the only one who will ever know the prophecy in full. The rest of you will just have to take my word for it." Selena nodded, as usual. She had been doing it so often, I wondered whether I began to associate it with something.

"You and Apollo. And me, if you trust me." Selena gently smiled, as if telling me it was okay if I wanted to keep it a secret. That just made me feel guilty before going in.

The penthouse was amazing. I didn't expect there to be a jacuzzi, but there it was. I half-expected someone to be sitting there waiting for me to jump in. I could see a nice table, a kitchen and even a giant bed. It was perfect for someone to stay in all day. Then I realised that the Oracle _does_ stay in all day. I had never seen them around the city before, even when eating dinner.

I walked to the giant bed. The giant bed had a small clump to the side, underneath the blanket. The small clump was shivering somewhat. I didn't want to wake the Oracle from their sleep, but it was a prophecy. I assumed prophecies were something worth waking up for.

I grabbed the edge of the blankets and pulled them out from the Oracle. The Oracle rolled out of the bed onto my feet. The Oracle wasn't waking up. I picked them up, they were rather small, and placed them back on the bed.

I looked at the Oracle. On the outside, she looked like a little girl. On the inside, I can't say because I wasn't Selena. There was one thing I could feel from her that Selena couldn't however. The presence of a god. The little girl was definitely the Oracle, she held the presence of Apollo within her.

"Hey, are you okay?" I asked. The Oracle didn't answer. I sincerely hoped I didn't kill the Oracle. Luckily for me, I didn't.

"No, I need my beauty sleep

Punishment you shall now reap."

The Oracle suddenly woke up and began speaking in rhyme. I jumped back a little in surprise. Her eyes were scary. They were coloured like the sun, just like Apollo, but exuded a presence that seemed to scream that I shouldn't be here.

"I just came for the prophecy. I'm Flak Tartrum, Apollo might have mentioned me?"

The Oracle closed her eyes in thought. She didn't open them again. The presence that emanated from her eyes disappeared.

"Ah, the cheating hero

He called you one with worth of zero."

The Oracle turned to look at me despite not being able to see. Maybe she prophesied my position? Regardless, she looked angry.

"I'm sorry if I hurt you, Oracle." The Oracle smiled. She smiled like a little child who had just gotten cookies from their mom. She reminded me of me when I was little. Though she had a little bit of Selena, also easy to read. And mean.

"You recognise me, a welcome feeling

But are you prepared for fate unappealing?"

I knew my answer. I thought I was prepared once I came in here. I woke the Oracle up, I explained why I came. Yet, I knew, I wasn't ready.

"No." The Oracle stood on her bed and patted my head. She probably thought I was akin to a child. Coming into their parent's room, asking for a pet, then realising they weren't prepared for the pet. The responsibility of taking care of another living being was a heavy burden to bear.

"I agree, you are not.

But regardless, this is your big shot."

I sat next to the Oracle on her bed. She sat down, ready to say the prophecy at anytime. I wasn't ready to hear it. I thought I was over everything that happened today. To any normal mortal, they'd think all of this was insane, not real. I guess that's what makes them susceptible to sleights.

I was normal until today, then Selena happened on my existence. In a way, it was her fault. I didn't believe it though, this was how it was always going to be. Seeing the Oracle at my side made me realise I knew something about fate too. Maybe it was from my godly parent. I knew mom was never a demigod, she was as normal a mortal can be.

Fate would have me realise that everything was destined. Every single moment I would spend with the people I interacted was fated. But I knew that wasn't it. Only major events were destined. I would end up in front of an Oracle, sooner or later. Whether it be with the Romans or the Greeks. I could delay hearing the prophecy, but I could never escape from it. So, why not listen to it now right?

"Tell me." The Oracle jumped off the bed.

She finally opened her eyes again, which were not blazing like the sun. But instead flowing with green mist like a fog. Wisps of green mist began flowing from all over her body. Whenever she began to speak, green mist flowed out from her mouth. Finally, after several moments of waiting, the Oracle spoke my prophecy.

You shall defeat the lightning curse

With this good quest, all become worse

Lost in flames

The dame's shame

Into the quest, rising thunder

The meeting point cast asunder

The butterfly released

Heralding deathless beast

With destruction of the prison

Witness the death of the treasured son

I sort of fell into a trance when I heard the prophecy. I could feel all the fatigue I built up in the day wracking my body. Only then did I realise how tired I was. I remember that I walked back to my room and Selena tried to talk to me, but not much else. I only regained my thoughts after taking a short nap.

It was hard not thinking about it. I wanted to sleep it off, but I couldn't. What did Selena say to me before I headed back to my room? I didn't remember. Maybe she could tell it to me right now via a soul message? Selena this is a message, please respond.

Selena did not respond. I checked the clock on my bedside table. It was 11 pm, maybe later. I couldn't tell, the clock's minute hands were very small. I brought the clock closer to my face, in an effort to check the time. The minute hand seemed to be shining somehow? I rubbed my eyes to see the clock. Somehow it had become 11:45. I looked to where the minute hand was pointing, it was pointing to my balcony.

I heard knocking on the balcony door. I couldn't see the knocker as I had closed my curtains. I looked back to my clock. The minute hand was still at 45. I smiled wryly, another form of trickery? Maybe it was my dad, or maybe it was a random god, I don't know. Being up this late made me think weird things. Regardless, I had to answer the door. I opened my curtains to find a man on my balcony.

"Delivery service," The man waiting for me cheerfully said. He was holding a package for me. I rubbed my eyes again. His blondish-green hair reminded me of someone. I opened the balcony door and walked onto my balcony.

"Are you a god?" I dumbly asked. I thought I felt something, but the presence was so faint, I could barely sense anything. The presence emanating from the man was even smaller than Psyche's. So far, the presence ratings from smallest to biggest were: This man, Psyche, Oracle, Arty, Apollo.

"Well, I'd have to be to be delivering this package. Sign your name here." I looked at the paper and pen the god handed to me. The paper had a brand that said Hermes Delivery Service. The pen had two snakes wrapped around it. The snakes seemed like they wanted to jump off the pen and go eat some rats.

"Hermes? The god of thieves? You're Hermes?" I was slightly shocked. Well, not slightly. "I could barely feel your presence."

"You're pretty good at sensing gods then." Hermes cheerfully complimented me. "Sign it."

"Oh, right." I signed the paper with the pen. The pen's snakes seemed to move slightly as I wrote on the paper. I filled in all five stars and quickly gave both back to him. Hermes put his pen behind his ear. The twin snakes trembled.

"Here's your package. I'll just open it for you." Hermes opened the package and grabbed whatever was inside it.

"A scroll?" Hermes opened it up. He read the contents first and nodded.

"Here's your quest scroll. On it are a list of tasks you have to do." I received the scroll closed. I tried to open it but found that I couldn't. I kept trying as we kept talking.

"Why?"

Hermes cheerfully answered me, "To get rid of your lightning curse of course! Don't you want it gone?"

I scratched my head. Well, to get an offer out of the blue like this was weird. I think I was right being suspicious, even if the offer is from Hermes. "Well, yeah. But, is it that easy to remove?"

"Of course it is! Lightning is Zeus' domain!" Hermes cheerfully reaffirmed. His presence began to waver. I could tell he wanted me to hurry up. It felt like he was rushing to have this done, like he was running away from something, but I had questions and I couldn't afford to let them go answered, so I made do by speaking fast.

"So, Zeus is offering to remove my curse if I complete these tasks for him?" Hermes' presence began slowly diminishing. He smiled.

Hermes talked fast, like really fast. I could barely understand him. "Actually, there's one task for each major god. The Olympians minus Lord Zeus and Poseidon, but plus Hestia and Lord Hades. Poseidon has his favourite son helping him out, so he refused to give a task. Once you complete all of them, we'll ask Zeus to remove the curse."

"Oh, thanks, I guess." I talked just as fast back. He clearly understood my intentions and began talking even faster.

"Almost forgot. Here's the letter for my task." He handed me the letter and I took it, no questions asked.

"Can I open the letter?" Hermes almost took the letter back.

"No." I nodded understandingly. Hermes waved bye and took off. I wondered what he was hurrying up for.

His presence quickly disappeared from my senses. I looked up at the sky, from my balcony. I couldn't look straight up from my balcony, as other balconies covered my head. I had to lean forward to look at the night sky. I noticed something that I could tell was unsettling.

Clouds again. It was the same sign of the lightning curse. However, this time, the clouds weren't dark, they were bronze. They clearly weren't natural. I could sense that the lightning within wouldn't empower me. They weren't natural, they were weapons. As such, the 'lightning' doesn't count as lightning. Was that the new form of the lightning curse? I really didn't expect it to be this nasty.

The lightning strike would be powerful. More powerful beyond anything I've experienced. I raced back into my room and hurriedly grabbed my stuff. I shoved them into my bag. I decided to steal the clock, to help me tell the time. I didn't have a watch so I made do. I looked at the clock, it was midnight. The lightning count would have already reset.

While hurriedly packing my things, I named the curse cloud. I decided on Woody, main character of Toy Story. It's brown like his boot and I think it really fits. Don't blame me, I needed something to keep my mood up.

I ran out of the Zeus Complex, just hoping to get away from Woody. I ran towards the Great Hearth. The Great Hearth looked much more beautiful at night, but I couldn't ponder on that. I had to lead Woody away. I knew I couldn't get out of the city, so my hope was to get to an empty lot or something.

There were some people along the edges of the Great Hearth. It was very relaxing to be around it, though some people were there for extra dinner. I don't blame them. I asked around for an empty lot, saying it was for some late-night practice. Some people told me of some that were far away from the town square. I knew I wouldn't be able to reach them, so I kept asking for closer ones. I wasn't scared for me, I was scared of dealing damage to the city.

"Flak?" I heard a friendly voice call out. I recognised that voice.

"Dahlia, please tell me you have some secret hiding spot you use to practice your waterbending." Dahlia was eating, while playing around with her drink. She always drank water because she loved messing around with it. I told her it was because she was a born waterbender but she didn't believe me.

Dahlia had black hair, but dyed it blue. Her hair colour matched the colour of the ocean. Light blue on top and slowly darkening all the way to the bottom, the bottom being black. Dahlia's hair was cleanly flowing over her shoulders. She had brown skin that matched the colour of the burning logs in the hearth, though ever so slightly darker.

"It's not waterbending. What're you hiding from?" I smiled in an effort to keep calm. Woody was getting closer. I had to make some sort of excuse to convince Dahlia.

I made a dumb excuse. "Uh, Woody. He's a friend of mine. I accidentally broke his clock. I need a close hiding spot."

Dahlia shrugged. "Well, there's always Galin's."

"Galin has one? Where?"

"I'll lead you there. We'll be fast." Dahlia hurried off. I followed after her, naturally.

Dahlia led me to an alleyway somewhat behind Hephaestus Complex. She ran to the end of the alleyway and knocked on the ground. The ground lowered itself into a ramp. Dahlia and I walked down, taking careful steps so as to not slide down. It wasn't long before we reached Galin's hiding spot.

"Hey guys! Why're you here?" Galin wheeled up to us and asked. Dahlia shrugged and patted my back to make me answer.

"Do you have a testing area for your inventions and stuff?" Galin and Dahlia both looked at me weirdly. Then they looked at each other then back to me.

"Of course. Why? You wanna test out your maximum lightning power?" Well, that's an excuse I can use. I nodded quickly.

Galin wheeled off fast. Dahlia and I kept pace with him somehow. He was wizzing past some inventions and other things. He had an actual forge in his hiding spot too. Therefore, I could conclude that his 'hiding spot' is his workshop. We had to run for a few minutes.

"Experimentation Room. I'll go set up the lightning power measurer rod thing. I didn't name it yet."

"No!" I said a little too loud. "I just want to see how powerful I can make it."

"Alright then." Galin and Dahlia watched as I ran to the middle of the experimentation room, but not before I dropped off my bag outside of it.

The experimentation room was in the shape of a square. One side had glass, that was the entrance, the other sides had walls of concrete. The roof, well the ground above it was probably mostly dirt. The direct roof was also concrete, but the floor wasn't. The floor was celestial bronze. I gritted my teeth. I had a plan to avoid damage to myself.

I could sense Woody's position. Woody was right above me. It had been gathering lightning for as long as it could, and was now finally ready to release it. The lightning shot out from Woody, like a snake that lunged after coiling up. You could say it sprung out from a boot. The lightning struck the ground, but the ground didn't stop it. The lightning penetrated the ground, penetrated the concrete roof and hit me.

My first move was to immediately direct the lightning strike to the floor. Normally, the lightning would empower me, get me invigorated. Not this time. The lightning only wanted to hurt me. I had great lightning resistance though so it didn't hurt me much. However, I knew I wouldn't be able to contain all of it within my body.

The lightning went from my feet straight into the ground. The lightning seemed to raise havoc as it raged throughout the ground. I could tell the celestial bronze floor was breaking. The lightning seemed to be on an endless path of destruction, not stopping for a rest. I could tell it was growing weaker though. The lightning strike was slowly losing power as it dragged itself around the room. Eventually, it stopped.

"That's some firepower you got there." Galin whistled in awe. Dahlia looked shell-shocked. I was breathing heavily, having just barely avoided damage.

"Wasn't me," I said in between breaths. "Lightning curse. It's stronger now."

"How many strikes is it a day?" Dahlia worriedly asked me. I walked out of the experimental room.

"Usually 3. Today's different though. Maybe 4 or 5." I tried feeling it out. Ever since I'd become more acquainted with my powers, I could tell much more of these things. If it had to do with lightning, I think I could tell a lot about it. Though, even then, I wasn't sure.

Galin began saying his thoughts out loud. "That's really bad. The lightning strikes are going to continue increasing in power, which means eventually everything around you will be destroyed."

Dahlia didn't even give me time to think before asking me the hardest question in my life. "If you were to stay in Epineio, how long would it take for it to destroy most of it?"

I thought hard. I had to consider the power of the lightning and how it might increase. I also had to think of how much more the lightning would strike. Whether it would increase each day one by one or by increments. I had inside knowledge on lightning, I considered it inside knowledge, because I'm sure it's from my dad, but I couldn't be too sure. I'd know as the days go by, but we didn't have that time. So, I low-balled the time.

"I think, I _think_ possibly, 10 days." To me, that was the worst possible situation and I could see the two being worried. It was possible it wasn't, but when it came to things like this, you couldn't be sure.

"So, we need to find a way to lift the lightning curse from Flak, and do it in about ten days, probably less." Galin grumbled.

"I already have a way to lift the curse." Galin raised an eyebrow while Dahlia seemed impressed.

"Wait, you do? How?" Galin asked. He leaned forward on his wheelchair as if he was hearing a grand secret.

I pulled the scroll out from my bag. "This is my quest scroll. The gods have given me a quest and in exchange for doing it, Zeus will lift the curse."

Galin nodded and prepared to wheel off. "We should set off immediately then. What's the quest?"

"We have 12 tasks." I tried to unfurl the scroll, it didn't work. After a while, I managed to unfurl it. I read out the first task. "Hermes' Task. Please give my letter to Haley Instil."

"Great. We're setting off on a quest right now. I'll get my stuff. Dahlia, can you get Flak a prophecy real quick?" Before she could say yes or even nod, Galin wheeled off to get his things. Dahlia turned to me and was about to ask me about the prophecy.

"I got it already." Dahlia ran off. I followed suit.

"We need one more person on this quest," Dahlia mentioned, as we ran past Galin. Galin was picking up various tools and shoving them into the compartments of his wheelchair.

"Why one more? Can't we have the whole city do it?" Dahlia almost turned back to sigh at me.

"Well then, it wouldn't be _your_ quest would it?" Dahlia retorted. I nodded along. We were out of Galin's workshop now. Dahlia and I were running to the Great Hearth.

"Alright. 4 is our magic number." We reached the Grand Hearth. We stopped to think about who to ask.

"Galin and I are coming along for sure. I don't know who else to bring." Dahlia brought her hand to her chin to think.

"Cull?" I suggested. I felt he would be a good pick. As an adult, he would practically make the quest a field trip. I had problems taking down the Erykian Boar. Let's just say, Erik. I had trouble taking down Erik, but I felt Cull would be able to do it easily.

"No, he has to keep an eye on Epineio. Maybe Franz or Harry?" Dahlia shot down my hopes. I began to think too. Then, I thought, bear with me here, 'If only we could share our thoughts, maybe brainstorm together. Oh wait.'

"Selena. Selena's good, she can read souls and transmit messages without talking. She'd be good in stealthy situations." Dahlia didn't immediately shut it down.

"Well," Dahlia seemed reluctant to continue, "If she wants to. If she says no, then we should ask Harry. Go ask Selena, I need to grab my things."

We nodded together and ran off. She ran to Poseidon Complex and I was about to run to Minor Complex. It occurred to me that I didn't know Selena's room number. She was probably asleep too and would get grumpy if I woke her up, but I had no choice. I wanted her with us on this quest. Not just because of her abilities, but because I knew her. There was only 4 people I knew here: Cull, Dahlia, Galin and Selena. Guess who I trusted most? Yeah, it's Selena.

I had to ask some people from Minor Complex, who were still eating in the Great Hearth. I think some people were pretty much nocturnal at this point. Most of the people I talked to didn't trust me and didn't give me Selena's room. I had to talk to a sleeping guy called Slade. I was muttering, then Slade answered me. I thanked him and he just told me to remember him and his father, Morpheus. After that he began muttering about a guy named Jackson or something.

Selena's room was 572, don't ask me why I remember. I haven't been there a lot, but I remember. I knocked on her door and when she didn't answer, I knocked on it again. She didn't have a doorbell, so I had to rapidly knock. Were the locks electric? My lock wasn't, but Selena's could be. I rattled the lock a bit.

It was electric. After the nap I had, I could tell I could shoot lightning again. I can shoot lightning anytime I want, as long as I wasn't tired out. I could technically solve the energy problem. Anyway, I shot out a little bit of lightning and manipulated it to subtly unlock the door. I felt like a stalker, but I think Selena would be angry if I went on the quest without her. She looked pretty angry when she was stuck in the car, so I think I could assume the same.

"Selena! Wake up!" I shouted kind of loudly. Selena didn't even start to stir. I felt I was being creepy if I walked in her room unannounced, so I came up with an idea.

I fished my clock out of my bag. It had an alarm on it, and was set to 6 in the morning. I fiddled with it a bit and shot some lightning to power it up. It was connected to an outlet back then so it needed electricity to make an alarming noise. I set the alarm in front of Selena's room and closed my ears.

"Flak! What are you doing in my room!?" Selena didn't even turn to look at me. She must have assumed I jump-started her alarm clock.

"I came to ask if you wanted to go on a quest. Do you want to?" I waited for Selena's response. I had to wait for a while.

"Yes. Now, let me sleep." Selena turned to look at me and shooed me away.

"We're going now. If you want to come, you have to get ready now." I sort of smiled when I said that. Selena frowned.

"Is it just us? Because I am not going out with you in the middle of the night."

"Dahlia and Galin's coming along. They're getting prepared right now. How about we meet in the Great Hearth?" I suggested. Selena groaned and slowly got up. She was wearing white pyjamas with a floral pattern. I noticed the flowers on it were red roses without thorns on it. She can be oddly romantic at times. Also, the dark pink rose I gave her was placed into a vase on her table.

"That works. Close the door." I hurriedly closed the door, but I swore I could see Selena blushing out of the corner of my eye.

'Shut up.' Selena sent me a soul-message. I smiled, knowing that this was going to become commonplace during the next 10 days.

I was the first back in the Great Hearth. I took a detour to visit the training grounds and pick up a few things. Thermos of nectar, and some cubes of ambrosia in a tupperware. They weren't the godly version, but they had amazing healing properties. I also grabbed a bow and two quivers of arrows. Just in case. Since, Selena would take some time changing, I had time to eat. I decided to remember the taste of pizza and try some soda. Turns out, I did not like soda.

Galin was the second. His wheelchair looked even more compact and he also came to eat. We looked over the quest scroll together and outlined which tasks to go for first. Some of the tasks weren't filled in yet, so we didn't even know some of our tasks. For example, Hades hadn't given us a task yet. Maybe he was thinking it over. Deciding which order was easy, because as it turned out, the order we wanted to do the tasks in was the same as the order we were given it. Basically, Hermes was good at ordering the tasks.

Dahlia came next. She was wearing a pendant with the symbol of a trident on it. I assumed it would be for transforming into a trident she would use to fight. We talked over the task, and Dahlia agreed to it. She didn't eat, but she did start to fill her canteens with water. She had 3 canteens to fill. Maybe she gets thirsty often.

Selena finally came. She was wearing her signature stick earrings that transformed into maces. Her hair was neater than last time. We talked over the plans and everybody agreed to it. Selena had to activate the bow's transforming mechanism thing for me. The bow transformed into an earring I put on my ear. It think it was pretty fashionable. The quivers however, could not be transformed. Galin then disappeared, probably to grab his car.

"We're using Galin's car right?" I made sure to ask. I did not want to walk all the way across America. That would not be fun. You know, I didn't even know which state Epineio was in. Because I don't know anything about America.

"We have to. We can't make it to the hospital Haley Instil is in without losing too much time." Selena answered me. Wait, where did she get that from?

"How do you know where Haley Instil is?" I asked. Dahlia looked at me with confusion.

"You can't sense it? If Hermes wants us to find something, we'll find it." Dahlia said nonchalantly. Hermes is the god of travelling, so it made sense but I wasn't getting a certain feel for it.

"He's still confused and probably can't sense it right now." Selena answered Dahlia for me. She was the only one who knew that I wasn't greek, so I had to trust her to handle this one for me.

Selena grabbed onto my shoulder and began to transmit that feeling. I could feel my mind connecting to Selena's, or maybe it was our souls. Well, whatever it was, we were connected and I could read her thoughts and feel the Hermes blessing. It felt like a tug in a direction. If I focused on the tug, I could envision a hospital. In fact, I knew that hospital. It was one that I went to frequently as a child, since it was the closest one to home.

Selena nodded when I realised that and stopped grasping my shoulder. I could still feel the connection though, but it slowly began to wear off. I focused back on the sense, and began to see more of the hospital. It delved into the hospital and came upon a room. I didn't have time to look around the room though, I had to cut it off.

"You okay?" Dahlia noticed I was beginning to feel light-headed. I waved it off. Selena looked concerned as if the connection was what tired me out. It wasn't though.

Something was refusing to let me have that blessing. I could sense Hermes wanted to give me that blessing, but he couldn't. Something inside of me was preventing us from making contact and when Selena connected me to her, that something nearly lashed out at her. I managed to cut it off though, so Selena was fine. It had to be the lightning bolt inside of me. The mystery clouds that were created weren't from another god, it was from that same lightning bolt. Despite only being a lightning bolt, it could fight back against the gods. Though, I guess I didn't see it fight one head-on.

"Guys!" Galin was sitting in one of the shotgun seats and waved to us. The coffin car was back and in working condition. I evaluated the car, to make sure it wouldn't start spewing carbon monoxide. It was fixed.

Selena and Dahlia took the back seats while Galin and I rode shotgun. Galin configured with the controls. Apparently the screen was touchscreen. Galin opened the screen to some kind of maps app. He was thinking on where to send us to. I took over and entered 'Chrysanthemum General Hospital.'

"Chrysanthemum? Is that a flower?" Galin asked.

"Yeah. It stands for cheerfulness and rest." I answered. Galin gave me a quick thumbs-up. He pressed a few more buttons on the car and the car began moving. I was going to start sleeping, but Selena began talking.

"Flak, why don't you tell us the prophecy?" Dahlia and Galin turned to look at me. Selena waited in anticipation. I gulped and prepared to say the prophecy.

"Should I tell you how I got it or?"

"Just tell us." Dahlia's words were pretty convincing.

"Alright. Not my fault if it sounds bad." I closed my eyes and thought back to the prophecy. It was ingrained in my mind, there was no way I'd forget it.

"You shall defeat the lightning curse

With this good quest, all become worse

Lost in flames

The dame's shame

Into the quest, rising thunder

The meeting point cast asunder"

I omitted the last part, though the rest of the prophecy was already enough to scare all of us. I felt guilty for not saying the full prophecy, but I felt I had worried them enough. They didn't need to worry about the butterfly and the beast. And they definitely didn't need to worry about the treasured son's death or the prison. I felt like the last parts were only for my ears, like how the quest was my quest, the last part of the prophecy was mine to hear. And no one else. Maybe.

"It's good I'm here," Dahlia muttered. She could control water so even if we did get 'lost in the flames' she could get us out. That was one thing we didn't have to worry about.

The worst part was definitely the first lines. We'd complete the tasks, but at the cost of 'all becoming worse.' That meant the quest had to come with a great cost. We were probably going to get 'lost in the flames' and Dahlia would be able to get us out. Though, I didn't know who the dame was and why she would be ashamed. Rising thunder probably stood for the lightning curse rising in power, but I didn't know what the palace hall was.

The butterfly was not something I knew about and I didn't expect anyone to. The beast must be the same beast Apollo was talking about, and apparently I wasn't supposed to let it out again. And not only that, we were going to watch a treasured son die. It was the last line of the poem and broke apart from the syllable count. Every two lines had the same syllable count except for the last line. It had one more syllable than the one before it, so it had to be important.

I half-wanted someone to share the knowledge with, the burden of knowing the prophecy and having to worry about it. I made the decision to keep it a secret so I couldn't tell it to anyone. I'd be betraying the others. Even then, I didn't want to keep it to myself. If only Selena would forcefully read my soul and have an epiphany. I knew she couldn't though, I regarded all thoughts about the prophecy as an absolute secret.

The car was moving pretty quick. Within seconds, we were out of Epineio and into its forest. None of us were talking anymore. We all began to rest our eyes in preparation of whatever came next. Whatever monster would attack us and whether we'd survive it. I looked back and saw Selena deep in thought. She was definitely thinking up battle plans and on what to do for our tasks. We'd have to hunt some monsters for our tasks and Selena seemed scared of Arty's task. I decided to push those thoughts aside and sleep, even if for a little bit. I could feel the lightning trembling in my veins, raging about. It was as if it too sensed the danger of my coming future.


	6. Eyes That Cry(That Means Me)

Haha turns out I'm very bad at gauging how long I take to write. I'll stick to hopefully a chapter per month. Hopefully. You know, I think my problem is that I only write when I'm in the mood. If I don't, I get angry about how bad I write. I think I'll take the time to initiate the mood this next month. That being said, happy holidays. Sorry for the short chapter. Give a review please, I need to know if you like it. Thanks.

Space between me talking and actual story.

"Wake up. Flak, wake up." I jolted awake. Galin was slapping my face gently. I swatted his hand away and yawned.

"What's going on? Are we there yet?" Galin wryly smiled. I rubbed my eyes. We were still in the forest. Understandable, considering how big it was.

"Take watch for me, I need to sleep." Galin immediately fell asleep. I yawned again. Galin did look like he needed lots of sleep. If he wasn't going on this quest, he was probably going to pull an all-nighter in his workshop. What did he need to work on anyway?

I yawned yet again. I was also lacking sleep. In fact, I was lacking so much sleep I began to hallucinate strange sounds. The insects buzzing around and the rustling of bushes were normal. But, I heard weird squeals coming from behind us. I had to keep watch, so I shot a little lightning bolt out of my hand and played with it. Lightning powers defy reality. Just in case, I checked the side view mirror. My eyes widened as I saw something all too familiar.

To put it simply, my mind went into overdrive. I had to think of a way to wake everybody up quick, so they could cushion themselves. I didn't know why, but I instantly locked on to the car screen. I didn't evaluate it or anything, I just knew what it had. The car had an encyclopaedia app, a design app and even a videogame on it. All that information ran through my head in not even a second.

I slammed the car with electricity. The car screen flashed through different apps until it landed on the alarm app. I shot more electricity into the car. The alarm on the car rang so loud that even Selena jolted awake. I stopped the electricity just in time for me to shout a warning.

"Boar!"

Selena and Dahlia lurched forward and crashed onto the back of the shotgun seats. The car made horrible screeching noises as it began to sputter out of control. The car was hit again, but on the side. It spun over and crashed into a tree. I could hear us all grunt in pain as we landed on our heads. We barely had time to recognise our situation before we heard another malicious squeal. Erik was charging directly at us from the front.

Galin brought out Erik's former tusk and blew into it. He must have spent his time working on it, as the tusk was bronze. Powerful lightning shot out from the tusk and broke through the glass window. It shot straight at Erik, though he decided to dodge. Galin tried to blow the horn again, but it only spurted out little sparks.

"It's Erik. Erik the boar." I told the others. I had seen Erik in the side view mirror, ready to ram us. I knew I killed him, but here he was again.

"I assume that means the Erymanthian boar. We have to fight, except Galin, of course." Selena turned herself around into an upright position. We all followed suit. I looked out the front window. Erik was in front of us, waiting. I guess he decided to be a gentleman and wait for us to strategise.

"Why Galin?" I asked. Galin looked at me as if I was an idiot.

"You think I can fight?" I nodded. I shot lightning into his Erik tusk. From that, I could sense that the tusk was connected to the lightning curse. It wasn't fully hollowed out, so it wasn't at its full power. But, I had recharged it a bit, it could shoot again.

"Yes. You have a gun and Erik's tusk." Galin only did sign language in response. He pointed to himself and laid his left hand down. His right hand was shaped into a scissor with the thumb pointing up. He crossed his left hand with his right hand. I had to assume that meant 'I'll be run over.'

"You're absolutely right. Let's go." Galin sarcastically began crawling.

Selena and Dahlia got ready to crawl to the front. But, before that, I had to ask, "Wait, before we go, can anyone tell me why Erik is back? With wolverine tusks to boot?"

"I don't know. He shouldn't have reformed that fast." Selena elaborated, "Monsters reform in Tartarus after they die and the few that escape are the monsters we face. Erik died yesterday, there was no way it could reform and escape from Tartarus within a few hours."

"He must have had help. Some kind of sick person who decided that resurrecting monsters seemed good and fine." Dahlia looked disgusted at the idea.

"Not just that, the person armoured Erik's tusk with adamantine." Galin took a look at Erik before turning back to us.

"We can do this guys," I said to the others. I began crawling. Galin got the tusk ready, to scare away Erik if he charged while we were crawling.

I kept my head forward, to pay attention to Erik. Erik was such a gentleman for waiting on us. Or maybe he was scared of the lightning tusk. Both works. I had to be careful not to let my hands touch the ground since it was covered in glass shards. If you've ever broken a window, you'd know the glass shards spread everywhere and tear through your skin.

I got up first and touched my earring. The earring expanded into the same bow I used during the Apollo competition. My quiver was already on my waist as I had put it on while we pulled out our water containers. I pulled out an arrow and nocked it, prepared to strike. I wasn't sure what I was aiming for, Erik's eyes were much smaller than a bullseye. Not only that, I didn't have the help of the lightning bolt either. I knew, for certain, that it increased my overall abilities. It helped me win against Apollo. Though, to be fair, I was shooting at the same target multiple times. Get with the process and you'll master it.

Selena pulled off her earrings. They turned into maces. Dahlia also pulled off her pendant. I expected a trident, but it was a sword instead. I didn't know why the pendant had a trident on it if it wasn't one. Since the three of us had weapons at the ready, well, technically Galin was also ready, but he wasn't battle-ready, Erik saw it fit to squeal.

"Alright Erik! Come on, let's duel!" I shouted. I walked slowly towards Erik. Selena and Dahlia shuffled away, probably worried about me, but I had a plan.

Erik charged. His only attack was charge, which made it pretty easy to avoid. I let loose an arrow, hoping to hit his eye. The arrow bounced off the thick skin. I grabbed another arrow, and instead of shooting it, I extended it. I threw the now-lance onto the ground, letting it roll towards Erik. If all went well, Erik would trip over the lance. Unfortunately, all went not well.

"Flak!" Galin screamed. Erik simply leapt over the lance and kept charging. I barely had enough time to pull out another arrow and extend it to block the charge.

I stamped my feet on the ground and held up the lance. My bow clattered onto the grassy ground. Erik's tusks became entangled with the lance and actually brought me off the ground. I expected to skid on the ground, like a hockey player, but instead I was brought off the floor as if I was a beetle on a stick a child picked up. A beetle that was unfortunately about to be smashed onto a car. Poor beetle.

In an effort to stop him, I generated electricity and shot it through my lance. The lance conducted the electricity and sent it to Erik's adamantine tusks. To my surprise, it didn't affect him at all. The tusks coated in metal didn't conduct electricity. I didn't have time to shoot another bolt of electricity before I crashed.

I gritted my teeth to avoid screaming as I was smashed onto the car. My body was the only thing that prevented Erik from running over Galin. I felt like I was Batman, getting his back broken by the Bane. My back wasn't broken, but it definitely felt like it. A miracle.

"Galin, now!" Selena shouted. I heard Galin blow his tusk and saw a little streak of lightning that passed under my legs, ever so slightly not hitting me. The lightning splashed onto Erik's face.

I then realised that the lightning splash was not in fact, actual lightning. It was water. Water had splashed onto Erik's face and absorbed the lightning. Despite the nature of reality, the lightning spread throughout the water. Erik didn't even have time to respond before the water dove straight into his eyeballs. I would've cupped my mouth in horror if I could.

Erik began convulsing. His eyes were trembling and his legs almost gave out. The immense pressure on my arms and body stopped. I dropped the lance and nearly collapsed. Dahlia didn't fry Erik's eyes, she fried everything else. The eyes led straight to the brain, so naturally, Dahlia sent the water up there. Then through the spine. Then-you know what? I won't burden you with the knowledge.

Erik's final moments before disintegrating were watching me collapse. I saw straight into his eyes and he saw straight into mine. His eyes were scared, fearful of what was happening to him. Mine were probably horrified. For at least a moment, I thought we had a connection. Despite his attempts at murdering me, I felt sorry for him. The same way I feel sorry when a child couldn't afford flowers. I reached out my hand and grasped our prize in my hand.

"Flak, are you okay?" Selena ran over to my side. Her maces had already returned to her ears. She carried my bow with her and also returned it to my ear.

"Yeah. Wanna see our prize?" I asked sombrely. Dahlia nodded feverishly. At least someone was happy about this.

I opened my hand. Two eyeballs that were formerly Erik's sat on my palm. "Dahlia, these are yours."

Dahlia hesitantly took the eyeballs. I tried to sit down, but Selena took my arm and tugged me over from the car wreck. I was about to sit down on pointy bits of glass. I collapsed on the grassy meadow and silently thanked Selena for her assistance.

'Don't mention it.' Thanks Selena. Again. I began to wonder if maybe the chaotic lightning water was a plan Selena came up with and shared to the other two. But not me.

"Sorry," Selena apologised outside of my mind. She sat down next to my collapsed body, almost ready to lay down like me. Galin carefully crawled over to us.

"Dahlia! What do the eyes do?" Galin hollered. Dahlia broke out of her trance and sat down next to us. She looked uncomfortable having to be the one to explain.

"So, the eyes," Dahlia began. She looked incredibly uncomfortable. Galin gestured for her to continue. "They cry."

I wryly smiled. "Of course they do."

Dahlia tried to explain the benefits of a crying set of eyes, but the rest of us looked unconvinced. "They cry clean water. We have a steady supply of water now. I have easy access to water when we need it to fight. If it comes to it, we could drink the...tears."

"See?" The pool of tears in Dahlia's palm flew into the air and shaped into a little figure of a boar. She made it crash into a misshapen person, which was definitely me. I was a little miffed at that.

Since Galin and I weren't able to do manual labour, the girls had to pick up after us. Selena and Dahlia got Galin's wheelchair out from the trunk. Meanwhile, we were picking out glass shards from our face. They got out our bags and carefully retrieved some of the celestial bronze that broke off of the car. Galin had asked for some. Probably for the tusk.

Selena fed me two ambrosia cubes. The aching in my body lightened, but didn't go away. However, my wounds disappeared over time. It took several minutes, but the scratches and the bruises I received disappeared. I was in awe at the power of ambrosia, but didn't have time to think about it before Selena urged me to get a move on. We were going to walk all the way to Chrysanthemum General Hospital. By the way, I tasted pancakes this time. My favourite food changes a lot.

We were already pretty close to getting out of the forest, so it wasn't hard finding our way out. The sky above us was still dark, a sign that we were up way too early or late. I was hoping for some midnight taxi to come around, but nothing came. Galin was the only person able to fall asleep. His snoring was pretty loud and kept the rest of us up. Also, I have to say that I was the one driving Galin's wheelchair. Apparently, Selena was too careful and Dahlia was too rough.

I can't say nothing happened on the way to the hospital. We managed to reach the city just as the sun rose and made the decision to eat some food. We ate pretty quickly even though we still had the rest of the day and 9 others. Then again, we still had 12 tasks to go. After that, we took a taxi to the hospital.

Chrysanthemum General Hospital was just like a regular hospital. It wasn't big, but it wasn't small either. Not a lot of people needed to go to Chrysanthemum in this time of day, so the lobby was practically empty. I did spot quite a few people I recognised though, from my time here. I knew most of the patients who were stuck here. Diagnosing my condition took weeks, so I had the time to know these guys.

One special person, who was walking out of the hospital, happened to be my best friend when I spent time there. His name is Docker. We've drifted apart since then, as he was still recovering from his broken leg. As such he was always seen with a crutch. I advised him to ask for a prosthetic as that would be much quicker and we had the technology, but he refused. His reasoning was that the leg could always have been tinkered with and he'd stand out. I guess he just wanted to be 'normal.'

"Flakey! You're back! Haven't been back in months buddy. Where've you been?" Docker limped over to me and gave me a one-handed hug. I awkwardly gave him one back. His hand nearly reached my quiver, which I hadn't realised I was still wearing. When we stopped hugging me, he moved away. He didn't seem to notice the quiver, even though it was in plain view.

'Sleight. The Sleight that affects mortals is called The Mist. A more accurate term is Glamour. It affects all mortals who happen to see things that would seem unusual to them. It makes them think of an explanation that makes sense and the Sleight makes it look like it." Thanks Selena. So, for all we know, Docker sees a normal purse.

'Yes. That is how it works. Congratulations.' Tired Selena, my favourite kind of Selena.

I smiled, not wryly this time. "Gave up on a cure. I'm just living life under roofs now."

"Haha, sounds good." Docker eyed the others somewhat uneasily. "So, what're you here for then?"

"We're looking for..." I trailed off, but Selena had my back.

"Haley Instil. She's a little girl about 12 and has platinum blonde hair. She's supposed to be bedridden in a room here." Selena grasped my shoulder and pulled me back a little, closer to her and away from Docker.

"Who's this, Flakey?" Docker looked suspicious of Selena. I knew I had his full trust, but I didn't know why he was so distrusting of everyone else. He wasn't like that when we first met.

"Selena," I wavered, "Instil. Haley's big sister. She recently traveled here to visit Haley but had no idea where to find the hospital. So, I escorted her here and I figured I might as well pay a visit."

"Cool, cool. I'll make it easier on you then. Her room number's," Docker hesitated, probably because he wasn't sure if he remembered, "407 if I remember correctly."

"She was on the same floor as us? How did I never meet her?" In this hospital, the patients are tight-knit. We're encouraged to interact with one another and as a result some of us think of the hospital as a second home. I still do.

"Back then, the doctors were still making sure that she wasn't under too much stress. It was like that until recently."

"Residents only?" That was how visitations typically worked. Residents of the hospital that were cleared for visiting and family members.

"And some trustworthy outsiders," Docker added.

"Then we're fine," I thought out loud. Haha Selena, you have to use your ears for this one. Selena sighed and moved over to Dahlia. Dahlia comforted Selena. Docker, meanwhile, had a smile that seemed strained.

"Yeah, you'll be fine. I'll wait outside, just like always." Docker slowly walked over to a nearby bench with his crutch. The bench was carved with an ornate design and was put in front of a flower bed. I smiled a little bit when I saw that. Same old Docker.

"Come on, come on." Galin impatiently drove inside. Dahlia and Selena quickly followed in. I hesitated before I caught up with them.

Docker felt off. When you hang out with him, you can tell he just wanted to stick around and have fun. He would go along with the group and had a hard time saying no. That led to him getting taken advantage of a bunch of times, but he always excused it by saying that is was for them. Whatever made them happy.

Today, though, he was different. He was hesitant, something he never is. Was he scared or something? The Docker I knew would have happily chatted with the group. He'd probably talk to Galin for awhile. It was the little things that made me think about it. I didn't know whether that made me too cautious or too sensitive. Whichever it is, I had to put it behind me and move on. Docker probably had an operation or something coming up. That was why he was nervous. No reason to worry.


	7. Hot Guys Alert

Alright, so I took a month and a half. It _is _long though, so that's a good thing. Okay, to be honest, I was thinking of a bunch of things that'll come later on. And I needed to think about setting that up. I did, so I added some things. Also, I figured out a way to separate the things. _Look!_

LC

Cool, right? No? Okay. I'll use a different one them. Thanks for continuing and reading this. Honestly. Updates are obviously going to be irregular, since I need time and my writing skill fluctuates per day. Anyway, continuing with the thank you. Thank you all for continuing to read. Thank you especially to Tgm102 dor the favourite. Sorry for the wait. Have fun.

FT

My friends took off for the fourth floor immediately. I, being a responsible teenager, went to the receptionist to ask for permission. She was a nice lady who seemed to daydream a lot. She helped me fill up some forms for our visitation and as I was a former resident, I was allowed in, no questions asked. Now that I think of it, that might be illegal. I hope she doesn't get fired.

I got in an elevator quick. I pressed the button for the fourth floor, but it seemed to be malfunctioning. I pressed it a couple more times before giving up on normal means. I ignored the man who had just ran in the elevator, barely making it in before the doors closed.

I closed my eyes, focusing on trying to feel electricity. I knew what had happened back there with the car. I had a hunch, so I decided to test it out. I reached for one of the elevator buttons.

I took my time feeling it out. It was like evaluation, watching the object's history and having knowledge appear in your head. Except that I knew exactly what it was. I felt like I knew everything about the elevator. It wasn't evaluation, I think it was some sort of other ability. Maybe it was my specialty.

The man next to me tapped the sixth floor button, but the elevator didn't move. His arm seemed to slow when he touched the button. He frowned before stepping back and watching me work. He probably thought I was mashing the buttons or something. In truth, I was sending electricity up the circuits. There was a problem with the wiring all the way back to the engine room in the basement. Because of that, the motor couldn't get any electricity. I couldn't fix it from here, so I had to feed the motor with _my_ electricity.

"Broken elevator huh? Not exactly the best of circumstances, wouldn't you say?" The man cut in.

"Yeah. It's old though, so we probably need to wait." I pointed to the buttons of the elevator. "The buttons are lit up."

The elevator began moving slowly. And by slow, I mean turtle pace. No, wait, turtles can be fast. Tortoise pace. I didn't know how much electricity the wires could handle. If I shot in too much, I could break the wires and that would increase costs for the hospital. It was better if I didn't risk it.

I looked back. The man had raised an eyebrow. "You were right. Tell me, how did you know?"

"Oh, I was a resident here," I answered. I had a hand on the button, but I could still turn around to face the man.

The man looked young for an adult, probably in his 30s. His eyes were calm and taciturn, constantly observing his surroundings. The rest of his face was more normal. Light stubble that matched his brown hair. His slight smile contrasted his eyes. It was strange. I liked it when he was frowning instead. Did that make me weird or did that make him weird?

"I see. I've been thinking of transferring my two boys to this hospital, they're always getting in trouble. Do you think that is a good idea?" He raised his hand to his chin and closed his eyes in thought.

"Sure. The patients are a tight-knit community and we have taken up babysitting jobs while still stuck here. I think your kids will do fine."

"I'm glad to hear that." The man took a closer look at my face. It was as if he was scrutinising me, checking through every feature I had. His eyes shifted around, evaluating every single bit of me. Eventually though, they landed on my earring.

"That is a magnificent earring. It looks good on you." I blushed a little bit at that compliment. The compliment made me self-conscious. It was like having Selena around.

"Thanks. It was a gift from a friend."

"You have a good friend then." The man smiled.

We stood in silence for a few moments, thinking about what to talk about. He closed his eyes for a few seconds, as if he was concentrating on something. When he opened them, he looked as if he had just went jogging for an hour. I looked at the floor number above the elevator door.

The man must have noticed me looking, because he said, "The elevator skipped your floor."

"It did? Maybe the elevator was more broken than I thought," I lied. If I left on the fourth floor then the man would have been stuck. As such, I controlled the elevator to move past my floor.

"Perhaps. Let's move on from that. What are you here for?" I perked up at the question.

"I'm visiting a friend." Great, I had to lie again. "You're here for a checkup right?"

"How did you know?" The man asked while lifting an eyebrow. He cupped his chin with his hand as if he was investigating a deep mystery.

"You winced when you tapped the button," I pointed out.

The man gave me a smile. He waited a bit before he answered, as if he was choosing his next words carefully. "I hurt my arm, playing with my boys. They can be a bit rough at times. Since we might see each other again, I'd like to learn your name."

The man spoke as if he was going to end the conversation right there, no matter if it was going to be awkward. I took a closer look at his mannerisms, instead of his face. Sometimes, a person's actions tell more than their face. When I observed him, I felt he was—I don't know—out of place. His eyes were constantly observing, his hands were moving aimlessly. His feet repeatedly tapped the ground, enough times that I felt like he might have been a tap dancer. His body seemed as if they were itching to move, go somewhere, do something. Sort of like Galin and Dahlia. Galin loved playing with stray pieces of machinery and Dahlia played with water. Come to think of it, the kids back in Epineio were like that too.

"I'm Flak Tartrum." I reached out my hand. "And you are?"

"Jaz. It's short for a name most can't pronounce." Jaz decided not to take my hand. I frowned. These were sad times.

"Let me try." How hard could it be? However, before I got to learn Jaz's full name, the elevator doors opened.

"I'd love to chat some more, but we'll have to say goodbye here." Jaz waved his hand goodbye as he stepped off the elevator. "I hope we meet again, little Flak."

And with that he left. A man whose mannerisms resembled a demigod, but whose face resembled a statue. A finely chiseled one at that. I sighed a little bit as the doors closed. Was he a demigod? I didn't feel any godly presence from him.

As I pondered those thoughts, the elevator moved. I looked back up at the elevator numbers. They were moving up. The elevator was moving to the 7th floor, the final floor of the hospital. I shrugged. I might as well escort those guys before getting to my floor. Shouldn't take too long.

"What took you so long?" Galin looked at me with a face that didn't seem to believe I took such a long time. I smiled wryly.

"I thought becoming an elevator attendant would be fun. It wasn't." Galin moved along the hallway and I followed.

The hospital hallways were relatively normal. Windows covered the walls of the hallway, allowing us to see all the cars that drove down the streets. It was still somewhat early, so there wasn't a lot of movement down there.

These hallways were nostalgic to me. I could see Docker and I leaning against the windows, talking about random stuff. Stuff like how much money it would cost to replace an arm or whether there was a god shooting lightning at me out of spite. One of our favourite topics was about the weird alleyways in the city. The ones that led to mysterious caves that always seemed to change every time someone entered. Now that I think of it, the last time and only time I went to one was with my childhood friend, Clair. We were heading inside one for-

_CRACK_

Suddenly, my head bursted with electricity, not literally. It was like trying to evaluate Astrapí back then. I held my head with both my hands. My thoughts were all jumbled up and crossing my mind with every step. I flash-backed to so many different memories, events which shared one thing in common. They were events that I considered unbelievable.

I remembered my mom telling me how some plants exploded to transport seeds, how I first got struck by lightning. So many memories pierced my head, but one memory stood out to me. Lightning, striking at some sort of shiny blob.

FT

I was younger then. Maybe 3 years younger. I was walking with Clair, my childhood friend, though I always thought of her as an older sister. We were investigating those alleyways we heard at school. Those strange alleyways that people disappear into. Some came back out, shaken up. But others never did. Despite that, Clair dragged me along on that adventure. She was two years older than me, if I remember correctly.

"Snowflake! I think I found one of those alleyways?" Clair shouted from around a corner. I sighed when I heard her voice. I really wasn't looking forward to exploring some ghost alleys.

"Really?"

"Yep." Clair came out from the corner and motioned her hand to tell me to come in. "Let's go in."

I fidgeted around nervously. "Clair, can we not? My mom's gonna worry."

"And _my_ mom would throttle me if we didn't. Don't worry, we'll look around and get out quick," Clair retorted.

"Promise?" For a second there, I believed Clair would promise. "Actually, never mind. You'd just cross your fingers again."

"I would."

I popped around the corner and took a look at the alleyway. The two buildings it was between were brick-red. The alleyway had a dumpster to the right, filled with trash. I took a look at Clair to make sure she wasn't rummaging in the trash again for spare parts. One time, she made a car out of an Italian restaurant's trash. Her mother burnt it to a crisp and called it edible.

"Over here!" Clair called out from behind the dumpster.

I gloomily walked over to her, ready to face whatever monstrosity she probably invented. I already thought that the ghost alleys were a sham, so the only reason Clair would have to bring me along was to surprise me with a weird invention of hers.

"A staircase leading down?" I muttered. Clair grinned a big silly grin. She knocked her fist against my head playfully.

"Weird, right? This has to be the one."

I questioned, "But where does it lead to-?"

Without warning, Clair pushed me aside. I crashed into the dumpster, almost falling into it. Clair jumped back, taking out her baseball bat from her bag. Even with my head dizzied, I managed to look at the reason behind why Clair pushed me.

A shiny blob stood where I was standing just before. It was something I felt I shouldn't be able to comprehend. A formless haze that looked vaguely like a blob. It shined in the sunlight, spinning around as if surveying its surroundings.

"Snowflake, you see that thing right?" Clair shouted from the other side. I nodded. She readied her bat as if she was holding a sword. I was about to tell her to swing, when the blob turned to me.

I whimpered. I closed my eyes, my hands blocking my body. I was sitting there, waiting to die. Then, I felt a familiar presence. A cloud, just waiting to hit me.

Lightning struck me. I vibrated heavily, shaking the dumpster behind me. The dumpster bursted, launching trash into the air. The trash scattered everywhere, spilling on me, Clair and the blob. The lightning took that opportunity to discharge at the blob, stunning it.

Clair, with a ramen cup in her hair, took that opportunity to slam the bat into the blob. She took a standard batting pose and swung as hard as she could. The blob was launched at a high velocity to the wall opposite the staircase. I couldn't blame her for not swinging the other way, she was left-handed after all.

"Snowflake!" Clair said. She ran to my side and took my hand. She pulled me up and dragged me behind her.

The shiny blob turned to look at the two of us. Our backs were against the staircase. We had nowhere to run, except back. I looked back, trying to see if there was anywhere we could go. The stairs led down and down. I couldn't see through the darkness.

I could hear Clair's shoes start to smoke. I looked at the ground she was standing on. Traces of the blob's ooze were still on it, slowly melting the ground. Some of the ooze had gotten on Clair's shoes. She shook the ooze off to the side when she realised I was staring.

"Clair, we have to run down that staircase." I grabbed her arm and began to run. She pushed me aside.

"We can't. Who knows what we'll find down there? That shiny screwup of a slime came from there," Clair said. She still had her eye focused on the blob. She clicked her tongue in frustration.

I could tell she was thinking of all sorts of ways to kill the blob. Never mind that we had no idea what that thing was. It attacked us, and we had to defend ourselves. That was all she had on her mind.

"What else do we have? The lightning didn't hurt it." She turned to look at me with unconvinced eyes. "You didn't do any damage!"

Clair stubbornly stood her ground. I knew she was trying to protect me, but this was going too far.

"We can run out of the alley. Run home and forget all this happened," she reasoned.

The blob split into multiple blobs. Its body sort of slid apart from one another. It was as if it was two scoops of ice cream and someone only scooped the top scoop. Except that there were 5 blobs now. 5 scoops of pain ice cream.

"Not anymore."

"Fine, let's go." Clair finally conceded.

I ran down the stairs, skipping a stair at a time. Normally, I wouldn't risk my life like that, but if I didn't, I would surely die to the blobs. I made it only a few steps down before I heard Clair scream in pain.

I turned around and opened my arms. Clair fell backwards, almost flipping over. She crashed into me, sending us tumbling down the stairs. Her bat hit my head several times in the process and both our bodies ended up battered. My clothes ended up getting singed somehow.

We weren't knocked out. However, Clair _was_ on fire. And since we tumbled together, that also made me on fire.

"Snowflake! You're on fire!" Clair quickly patted down the fire on my clothes. Luckily, the flames didn't have time to spread to my skin and were snuffed out the moment they appeared.

"You're on fire too!" I screamed. Clair didn't seem to notice the flames on her.

"No, I'm not," she said. I crawled away from her, pointing towards the burning ramen cup still on her auburn hair. She brushed it off nonchalantly.

Clair took a look at the ramen cup. She looked very unconvinced that it was on her. The ramen cup then decided to be engulfed in flames. Clair slowly walked towards it, not feeling the heat.

She grabbed the ramen cup. From my point of view, Clair's hand was totally engulfed in fire. Yet, they didn't seem to be burning. Clair looked unimpressed with the flame and waved it off. The flames went out at her command.

"Good news, I command fire now."

FT

And that was where I blacked out and where the memories stopped. The memories that followed were hazy. Whenever I tried to remember what directly happened, I only got waking up in my bed. Nothing in between. Maybe we were knocked out immediately after and the blob brought us to our parents?

Some memories after that had some discrepancies. There were entire weekends that ended with a single nap. And then there was the summer break. All of that gone. I went to bed excited and woke up in bed all tired out. That was it.

I didn't want to believe it. I really didn't. But, I had no choice. I had amnesia. That staircase must lead to somewhere. And I needed to know. I should call up Clair and explore with the rest of us. We had today and 9 more. What's a little detour in our quest?

Galin interrupted my train of thought. "That elevator was broken. How did you move it?"

"I have lightning powers, Galin." I looked at Galin with a dirty look. He seemed unfazed, probably because he didn't notice my headache earlier and kept on trucking along.

I shook my head. Maybe I should let that train of thought go. I should focus on the letter. I'll ask the others to explore with me before leaving the city. We have 10 days, shouldn't take long.

"I know that. It's just that I haven't seen any Zeus kid power electrical machinery without destroying the whole thing. Exept Cull, duh. He has some serious skills with his lightning." Galin did an impression of Emperor Palpatine. The impression was really good. I'll replay the memory in my head for Selena to see.

"Well, everyone's unique right? Maybe I have more control over my lightning than others." Galin looked unconvinced. "Like Dahlia."

It was true that Dahlia has an obscene amount of control over her water compared to her siblings. When we were cleaning the dishes together, a couple of the Poseidon kids(which was almost all of them) tried to use their water powers to clean the dishes. Dahlia slapped them with her own water and she managed to stave off any retaliation without getting exhausted. Eventually, the other kids tired and had to wash the dishes the old-fashioned way.

"I don't think it's like that. When you think of lightning, you think of the lightning bolt in a thunderstorm right? Not the jolts that power a phone."

I nodded my head. He got it exactly right.

"Yeah. Where are you going with this?" I shuffled along next to Galin, looking for the room number. 407. Despite walking with Galin for awhile, we hadn't come across the room. It was 407. It should have been the seventh door we see.

"Zeus is the god of lightning specifically. All lightning is electricity, but not all electricity is lightning. So, if lightning is only the lightning bolt then his kids shouldn't have precise control over electricity. At least, not off the bat. But, for a kid to have years of training without the years?"

The chair part of Galin's wheelchair lifted up, like a platform. It slowly spun around and turned to face me. Galin tapped a few buttons on his armrest, as the chair descended onto the machinery. He reached over and fiddled with the wheels. The wheels began moving automatically, without Galin needing to use his hands. I then began to wonder why he hadn't used that during our hike to the city.

I shrugged. "It's weird, yeah. Maybe it's a tradeoff? Dahlia can't do any earthquakes other than rippling water. The kid who can't control water much has pretty good earthquake powers."

"Right, but that's because Poseidon has other abilities. He isn't just Aquaman, he's also that giant catfish. Zeus, though, is only lightning and the sky. I don't know anyone who has the sky part, which means that they should be the same as you, but they aren't." Galin closed his eyes and thought deeply. "Can you evaluate the lights?"

I hesitated for a bit. Selena was the only one to know about me not being Zeus' kid. She thought that I was Jupiter's kid, while her mother, Psyche, thought that my mom was a demigod. That two different religions clash within me.

It wasn't like that. Mom was not a demigod. That leaves my dad. Jupiter or Thor. Maybe something else. Indra? But, Galin did sort of confirm something. All of those gods are gods of lightning, but not electricity. So, my dad is the god of electricity. At least I know something about my dad now.

When I came out from my thoughts, I saw Galin impatiently waiting. I hurriedly looked at the lights and the circuitry in the roof. The lights led to an engine room. The engine room was on the same floor working perfectly fine. The wiring was a tad shabby, but it worked. The elevator's wiring though.

"Yes. I can see the circuits and where it's connected to," I said.

Galin spoke his thoughts. "That's unique. Literally no Zeus kid I know has ever done that. Even Cull. I don't think even the Grace siblings have that power."

"The Grace siblings? Who're they?" I asked.

"Just the strongest Zeus and Jupiter kids of our time. Jason Grace was one of the Seven Heroes, the people who stopped Gaea. His sister, Thalia Grace is head of the Artemis Hunters. Jason Grace was the son of Jupiter, while Thalia Grace is the daughter of Zeus."

That was a lot of history dumped onto me. Why were there seven heroes that stopped Gaea? Isn't Gaea supposed to be nice and motherly? Mother Nature and all that? Thalia Grace did not interest me as much, other than the fact that her father is apparently different than Jason. They have the same last name, so their mother is the same. So, why did Zeus or Jupiter father only one child? Shouldn't Zeus or Jupiter sire both children? I had a lot of questions, but I decided to focus on one thing.

"_Was_?"

Galin looked a little uncomfortable. "He died sometime ago. When Apollo was solving that whole communication problem."

He was probably 30 or so when he died. Cull looked that age. So, no problems there. Except that Galin looked unnerved, as if he began to wonder after saying those words. I disregarded the Apollo thing(Good job Apollo) and asked Galin about it.

"They're adults, right?" I made a hopeful smile. The look on Galin's face told me all I needed to know.

"No. Jason Grace died young, like most demigods. The Artemis Hunters don't grow older, and most of them are kids or teenagers," Galin explained.

It was hard to digest, harder than learning I was a demigod and I had to fight monsters. To be honest, when I first heard that I was a demigod, I was excited. I was happy to get out of my normal life.

"He's one of the most powerful demigods of our time and he died _young_?"

Then this bombshell dropped. Jason Grace, apparently one of the _most powerful demigods_, died young. He was probably a teenager when he died. It was like hearing about someone from your school getting murdered. You couldn't believe it, but it didn't really affect you. You still had to go do your work. But, the thought still laid with you. You would keep thinking about that death. And eventually, you'd think of how easy it would be for you to die.

Galin's eyes had a forlorn look to it. He sighed before continuing. "That's how our lives go. Most demigods don't make it past 20. The ones that do are wildly successful. Obama is a great example."

"He's a demigod!?" I could tell Galin was trying to cheer me up. Obama is always a good way to cheer people up. Obama. You're welcome.

"Michelle Obama. I think she's the daughter of Athena. I heard Cull mention it once. That doesn't change who we are though. We'll probably die young." And there goes the cheering up. Obama. It wasn't working anymore.

"Is camp the only place that's safe in this world?" I thought to myself out loud. Galin didn't get that though, so he responded.

"Probably. Just 3 camps to stay in. Epineio, Camp Half-Blood and Camp Jupiter. Camp Jupiter has a whole city for demigods."

It was awhile before I continued the conversation. I was paying attention to our surroundings. Everything seemed normal, but we had not been able to find the room. Which was very strange, since I knew the numbering system of the hospital. We should have found room 407 a long time now. Yet, we hadn't. I knew we had turned several corners after the hallway with the window, but it looked like we came there again. Something was wrong.

"I'm getting tired of walking, let's wait for the others," I told Galin. He messed with his wheels and the wheelchair stopped.

I was so tempted to evaluate his wheelchair then. But, I decided not to. The inner mechanisms of the wheelchair would probably fry my mind. I could evaluate it anytime we had to sleep. We would have time to sleep, right? Right.

"You're tired? How? Oh, wait, I forgot people get tired of walking," Galin chuckled. I didn't.

"So, Camp Jupiter is Epineio but better?" Galin did not laugh at that.

"No. Maybe. Probably." Galin scratched his head. "Epineio is new though. We don't have traditions and stuff. We can mostly do whatever we want. Like on this quest. We went with 4 people instead of the usual 3."

"So, how do we decide which camp gets which demigods?" I was assuming that each camp was like different schools and had different cultures. While we call Epineio a camp, it's only because the other two camps are camps. At least, that was the impression I got from Galin.

"All three of the camps search for demigods. Camp Half-Blood gets the Greeks and Camp Jupiter gets the Romans. Typically. Depends if the person wants to move or not," Galin said.

"And Epineio?"

Galin shrugged. "We grab anybody we find. Once we talk about the other camps, the newbies usually ask if they can move there."

I raised an eyebrow. "You guys didn't ask me if I wanted to move?"

"We were going to tell you after we got rid of your lightning curse. It's just that we have to go on this quest where if we fail, lightning will destroy a lot of things. And that's bad." Thanks Galin.

"It's my fault. I'd still like to stay in Epineio though." I paused, thinking how to best ask. It was taking several seconds, and I decided that was too long to take, so I blurted out the first question I thought. "Can I?"

"Sure you can." Galin grinned. "Gotta ask Selena what she feels about you staying though."

"Why her?" I asked.

Galin began grinning even wider. He made some hand expressions, while thinking of something to say to me. He took an even longer time than I did, which made me realise I was being stupid earlier.

"No reason. Don't worry about it," Galin waved the problem off, but to me, it still seemed very real. I was about to ask again, but the subject of our conversation appeared.

"Why do you have to ask me?" Selena asked us. Dahlia was by by her side, twirling her hair. Dahlia was also grinning a little.

"Selena and Dahlia?" Galin turned around again. "I thought you guys went ahead."

"We did, but the room is hard to find. Even with the blessing of Hermes. Flak, you've been here before, right?" Dahlia asked me.

I explained heavily, "I have. I know the general layout of the place, but it feels like we've been walking in circles. The elevator marks one end of the hospital. The room numbers are numbered floor number then how many doors away from the elevator, hugging the right wall. Room 407 should be seven doors away. Yeah, I know, it's weird, but it's easy to memorise."

"And yet we haven't found it yet. I don't think we're that incompetent." It looked like Selena dropped the permission question.

"Someone manipulating the Mist? The same person that resurrected the boar?" Dahlia looked angry whenever she mentioned that person. I decided to change the topic a little.

"Hey, how do people manipulate the Mist?"

"It's magic, none of us know that," Galin responded before Selena could.

"I can manipulate it a little, so I can explain. The caster has to make the Mist show what their victim _wants_ to see, but in a way that benefits the caster, or they can try to force them to see an illusion, but that's hard. Children of Hecate can form physical objects. In some cases other people can form physical objects and do other magic things."

Galin perked up upon hearing the last line. "You think Gordin can make us celestial bronze?"

"Probably not. Anyway, if we are under the effect of a Sleight, then what we are seeing is what we want to see, hopefully. Everybody, say what you're seeing here. Number on the doors too."

Everybody began looking around themselves. Some of them touched the walls and paid specific attention to the door. None of them looked at the window. I didn't look, but instead, I opened the window. I felt the air breeze in, just as Galin began talking.

"Wall. Doors with cool knobs. The numbers are multiples of 16."

Dahlia reacted immediately. "Wha-? Never mind. I see IV drips laying around next to normal hospital doors. The numbers are 408 and so on."

"I see a general hospital hallway. Some patients are walking around and several nurses are rushing through the hallways. There are blinking lights in the hallway. Numbers are the same as Dahlia's."

I knew what everybody else said was nonsense. First of all, where are the windows? Second of all, Galin, what's with the multiples of 16? Anyway, I had to correct them on this. If someone was using a Sleight, I'll just say use the Mist, because it's easier. If someone was using the Mist to make us all see what we wanted to see, then I knew that my vision is correct. I would never view Chrysanthemum as a different place.

The others began babbling, so I cut in. "It's a normal hallway with windows. I've lived here, I know what it looks like. I've opened a window, you guys stick your hand in and feel the air."

Galin looked at me with accusing eyes, as if I was going to suggest he should stand up. I quickly explained myself.

"The Mist only affects sight, right?" I started.

"Wrong," Selena cut in. I gave her a dirty look before continuing.

"I don't think it affects touch."

Selena bitterly disproved me. "Sometimes it does. When it does, usually the victim is stuck in a hallucination and rooted on the spot. Sorry I forgot about that earlier."

That meant that the window I opened meant nothing.

"So, we could all be sitting in the elevator right now," Galin summarised. Great summary.

"Yes. I am not strong enough to break this Sleight, so we have to figure out how to break it."

Selena closed her eyes, then opened them. Her pink eyes shined slightly, as if she was focusing on reading any souls she could see, even while in the Mist. So, Selena thought that she can read souls even through the Mist. Could she though? Or, alternatively, could _I_ sense through the Mist?

Dahlia piped in, "Maybe we have to reach our destination. Room 407, only reason anyone has to Mist us is to stop us from getting there."

I decided to put my plan into action. "To me, the hospital looks like it did from back then. I think I can figure out how to get there."

Selena closed her eyes, obviously frustrated. She couldn't see living beings beyond the Mist. However, I would only be vaguely sensing any electrical lines and following them. I hoped it would work, but I couldn't be sure.

"Lead the way Flak," Dahlia said.

I walked forward, looking at the lights above. I focused on them, recognising their structure. Well, lack thereof. No electrical wiring whatsoever. The lights above us were all the Mist, unlike the lights before. I smirked a little bit. I continued walking, looking everywhere for any sort of electrical wiring.

It was only after a full minute of running around that I found electricity. And by that, I meant the elevator. Nothing on this floor had electricity, except for the elevator. I sensed the wiring of the elevator, confirming where the engine room was. The lights I sensed earlier was the elevator, somehow. Don't ask me about this Mist thing. Strangely, the wires led into the elevator, as if the elevator could be opened on both sides.

"Into the elevator," I muttered.

I turned around to make sure everyone was following me. Dahlia and Galin had gotten bored within seconds. They were doing their own things. Selena was pushing Galin's wheelchair. I waved them over and opened the elevator.

"We're on the fourth floor, aren't we?" Selena asked.

I shrugged. "Basement, I think. Wait here."

I walked into the wall of the elevator. The wall didn't last long, I was out in a manner of seconds. I looked around the room, following the wiring yet again. The wiring led straight into another wall. I tried to walk into that wall, but the wall blockaded me. The wire led through the wall, and there was no hole for them. I fumbled along the wall, searching for a hidden doorknob.

I let out a jolt of lightning, not really caring where it went. The lightning went straight towards an invisible object. The electricity thrived inside the object, as if it had found a home. Like an electric hermit crab trading shells with other hermit crabs and finding the perfect shell. A metal doorknob shell.

"Got it." I smirked again.

I twisted the doorknob and opened the door. All of a sudden, a barrage of mist came rolling towards me, engulfing my body. I could barely see anything. I began to hear voices in the mist. Shrieking and voices that screamed of death. I hoped they were wrong.

In the midst of the confusion, I stumbled around. I walked forward and backward, unsure of where I was going. I tried to feel my way around, keeping my hand on a wall.

It was just a constant mess of me stumbling around. I didn't know where I was. I kept walking around, probably in circles, or even in zig-zags. It wasn't until I fell down a hole that I had an inkling of where I was. When I landed on the ground, I was assaulted by a strange feeling. It felt evil, yet familiar. As if an angry cat was welcoming me back home. A cat that would constantly nip at me, tolerating my presence. I was there many times, but the cat would never go away.

'I won't actively try to kill you, but I would prefer you dead.' That was the feeling I got from where I landed.

When I regained my bearings, I wasn't sure what to do until Selena sent me a soul message.

'Flak, don't move, we're heading your way.'

'Where am I, Selena?' I thought back.

'This may come as a shock. Do you know the minotaur?"

I recounted the tale in my head. Something about Poseidon getting angry and him pulling the most atrocious act of punishment to make the minotaur. Asterios was its name, I think. It lived in a great maze designed by the genius inventor Daedalus. The maze was said to be inescapable, but a great hero managed to get through. Remembering all this brought me to a conclusion I thought was impossible.

"Am I in the Labyrinth?' I grimaced at the thought. I pulled out an arrow and extended it into a lance, just to be safe. If I was right, I had to be prepared to fight anything in these caves. Or anyone. Anyone?

I gripped my head in pain again. The same pain with the Astrapí and the realisation of the memories back then. I knocked my head with my hand. The pain didn't stop until I knelt down on the ground. It was there where I had to realise the truth of this place.

I had been here before. Some memories were drifting back. There were people living in the Labyrinth. Maybe they were still there, but I couldn't be sure. I knew that I had met people here and I remembered having friends that lived here. This place was full of memories, perhaps even where I spent the entirety of those two years. That didn't matter right now though.

Selena's voice sounded worried. 'I think so. It's getting harder to communicate with you, so you need to stay where you are.'

The mist was still covering my eyes. I closed them and instead sensed wherever I could. The wires I followed were gone, and any spark of electricity I could sense was from me. I focused even more, trying to see past the walls. Inadvertently, by focusing so hard, I was directing electricity to my eyes. It was at that moment, I managed to sense a faint glimmer of lighting. It was connected to several lamps and lightbulbs, so it had to be human.

'No. Selena, you guys stay there. I'm the only one who can sense my way through the Mist. I'll find my way back," I thought out loud with such confidence, I nearly fell over. It was a good thing Selena couldn't see that.

'...Fine. Be careful.' The reluctance was seeping from her voice. I tried to think of one last message for her to read, but nothing came out. I couldn't feel that ridiculously small presence in my head anymore. I knew then I was on my own.

I walked and felt my way to the light. There were several staircases and unstable ground that nearly tripped me. My lance was used as a walking stick, actually, more like a poking stick. I poked the ground and ahead of me, hoping to meet solid stone. I was pretty sure this part of the Labyrinth was made of stones, because some nearly tripped me. A nice trip this would be.

The mist stopped when I reached the lights. I stabbed towards it, and I felt resistance. The lance was jabbed into something, wood probably. I quickly contracted the lance into an arrow and found the doorknob. The door's wood felt familiar, somehow. Like I had felt it a million times.

When I opened the door, I blinked multiple times, just to make sure I wasn't seeing wrongly. I really didn't think I was seeing correctly, so I rubbed my eyes.

"Don't do that. Rubbing your eyes ruins your eyeshadow, so you ought to avoid it."

I turned to the owner of the slightly effeminate voice. I was a little surprised to find out that it came from a man. The guy coughed into his arm and muttered a few words. He noticed me looking at him, and gave me a sweet smile before pulling out lipstick. He uncapped it and began reapplying it on himself.

"I-" I had my mouth in silence for awhile- "don't wear eyeshadow."

"You don't? Then how were you able to see through the Mist to find my shop?" He asked, having finished reapplying. He put the lipstick down on a counter and sat himself down on one of the many chairs.

The place I had entered was like a makeup store in a mall. There were various products on display with some off-putting brands like Shadow Monster or Monster Sense or even Monster Radar(Now in makeup form). Some of them were in containers and others weren't. There were also a ton of mirrors around the place. The mirrors were placed on tables with glass surfaces. Underneath the surfaces were some products. Chairs were set beside the tables. The whole place smelled faintly like roses. Romantic love.

"I can sense electricity. So, can we start with introductions?" I smiled slightly, to say that I came in peace.

"Of course, of course. You wouldn't know me, but I am Prance, son of Venus."

"Venus? A Roman goddess?" I muttered.

Some memories unearthed themselves from my mind. I remembered how normal it was for Roman demigods to roam here. They frequently explored the Labyrinth, avoiding contact with other demigods, if they could. They were split up into multiple factions, after all. Any wrong move and war could ensue. How I had that knowledge, I didn't know.

"Indeed, indeed." Prance paused, smirking while doing so. "But you wouldn't have been able to get here without having some contact with the other demigods here."

"Wait, where is here?" I decided to ask. Prance's smirk didn't stop.

"Where is here? What a stupid question. You end up in my shop, and you don't know where you are?" He gestured for me to sit down on a chair.

"Sorry, I got lost." I took a seat and faced Prance. Prance crossed his feet and clasped his hands. I, not knowing the customs here, followed suit.

"You are in my shop, Prancing Prayers. My shop is in the Labyrinth. Though, of course you knew that," Prance said with great confidence. I nodded along.

Prance got up and began walking along the tables and shelves, checking his products. The chair I was on was a swivel chair, so I turned to face him. He answered my questions without looking back. I had to say, Prance was sort of cute.

He looked like if someone decided to make a man androgynous. His face had thin eyebrows and long eyelashes, but I could see the faintest hint of stubble. As if he had just started growing facial hair, which was odd, because he looked 20. It was like he had gotten a very late puberty or a second one.

"The Labyrinth. That's where all the weird alleyways lead to?" I asked, just to make sure.

"Of course, of course. May I ask you a question?" He finally turned to look at me.

"I'm Flak Tartrum. Sorry, I forgot to introduce myself."

Prance laughed a bit. His laughing almost made me want to join him. "That's fine. I knew who you were the moment you set foot in here. I was playing is all."

"You know me?" I questioned, having stood up. "From the Labyrinth?"

"Yes, yes."

"You need to tell me what happened in the Labyrinth. Listen, I have amnesia about the whole Labyrinth thing. I lost weekends and summer breaks. Please, I need to know." I stepped towards Prance, lightning trickling from my fingers. It happened unconsciously, having reacted from my emotions.

The lightning in my fingers calmed down after awhile. Prance didn't seem to want to talk before I calmed down. How could I have acted so angrily? I only discovered today that I had amnesia and then I found a guy who could explain everything to me. It wasn't like I had amnesia for half a year, but my desperation was the same. No matter whether I lost 2 years or all of them, I had to know.

"Are you done?" Prance looked unfazed. I took a step back and explained myself.

"I just need to know."

Prance seemed bemused. "Well, this is a conundrum."

"How so? Can't you tell me?"

Prance shrugged, walking back over to his counter with light steps. He reached into a cabinet and took a pill bottle. He swallowed a pill without water and placed the pill bottle back. For a second, I thought I saw the words 'Test-' on the bottle, but I didn't have enough time to read all of it.

"I can't, sadly. There is a prophecy about you floating around. Something about never entering again or the territories would be destroyed. Of course, I don't belong to a territory, so I don't care."

I perked up. "Another prophecy about me?"

"Oh, yes. You are quite important around here. I may not care about the destruction of the territories, but I do care about my friends who live there. So, I can't tell you anything."

For a second, I felt like I knew which people he talked about. "Nothing at all?"

"Nothing with a capital N."

I picked up some of his products. My lips were feeling pretty dry, so some lip balm would be nice. Foundation could be useful, but the Mist could handle that, couldn't it?

I shook my head. These were magical makeup products, as Prance had implied earlier. Eyeshadow that can see through the Mist. I looked for other products, with the same effect, that could be more easily applied, but I found nothing.

"Okay, what if I buy your eyeshadow? I'll pay you to apply it on me." I brought an eyeshadow palette to Prance's counter.

"Well, that's certainly a nice deal," Prance said while putting the eyeshadow palette in a case. "Applying eyeshadow on the Flak Tartrum? That sounds fun. What do you have to pay with?"

I rustled through my pockets. No money there. I took out my bag and looked through my supplies. All I found of money were several dollars, but I felt Prance didn't deal in dollars. I couldn't sell him the ambrosia or nectar. So, I looked towards my weapons.

"I don't have much cash." I held a finger up. "But, I have celestial bronze. You don't belong in the territories right? That means you aren't privy to their resources."

"And how many arrows do you think you can give me? Only the arrowheads are celestial bronze." Prance shook his head slowly as if the deal was over.

"They aren't just arrows. They can extend into lances with entire spearheads made of celestial bronze."

I took out an arrow and extended it to its full length. I placed the lance on the counter. Prance took the lance and inspected the tip. After several seconds, he looked satisfied.

"Children of Hecate have worked on this," Prance noted. "Then I shall take it. 2 lances then."

"No," I refused. "You tell me about myself."

"3 lances."

"Info or we aren't dealing." I crossed my arms. Electricity crisscrossed between my arms, sometimes straying and hitting the counter. It didn't damage it, though.

"Resolute when it comes to it. Fine. 5 lances. You get to ask a single question. Just the one."

I agreed to the deal. That was probably the best deal I could get. There _was_ a prophecy and prophecies could not be broken. No matter how one tried. I felt the last few thoughts of mine were from experience, but I couldn't be sure.

Prance got to work. He sat me down on one of the chairs in front of the mirror. I had my eyes closed the entire time, but I could feel his skill. I may never have had eyeshadow applied to me before, but even I could feel the skill Prance had. It wasn't just being the son of Venus, he had years of training. He treated his work as if a single mistake would cost him his life.

It felt like an instant, but Prance was finished. He had tiny beads of sweat on his forehead and wiped them with a towel. I didn't realise he brought a towel over.

I looked at the finished product through a mirror. I closed one eye and observed it with the other. There was barely any difference between my skin tone and the colour of the eyeshadow. I wouldn't have been able to tell if I didn't know it. I reached my hand to brush it, but refrained. It had a subtle beauty that I could not disturb.

Prance sat back down on a chair, satisfied with his work. "Have you come up with a question yet?"

"The territories." I turned to look at him. "What am I to them?"

"I expected you to ask about your personal relationships here, to be honest. Very well," Prance said. He breathed in heavily, probably while thinking of what to say.

"Full detail, please."

"You are a leader. An opponent to be feared. And an ally anyone would be glad to have."

I nodded. It was weird to hear this sort of thing. It was as if he expected me to do great things, because I had done it before. I had no idea what I was doing on this quest, to be honest. It was like comparing a younger sibling to a successful, older one. They did it before, so surely the younger one could too.

Prance muttered, "Especially to the Ceres territory."

"Ceres?"

"Roman goddess of farming and the like." Prance looked as if he was tired of accidentally muttering new tidbits of information. "They have a very special boy there, whose information I cannot divulge."

I brought my hand to my chin. I felt like I knew the special Ceres boy personally. "Why especially to the Ceres one?"

"I can't tell you. I don't know what your current relationship with him is," Prance emphasised, "and I _do not_ want to make things awkward between you two."

"Him? Is him that special farm boy?" I closed my eyes, hoping to get any memories of him. Nothing came up. For some reason, I felt sad.

"Perhaps. Perhaps." Prance decided to change the topic. "You need to go soon don't you? You have new friends waiting for you. And I smell the scent of love on one of them."

"The scent of love?" I questioned.

Prance's eyes were closed, he was focusing on smelling. "Related to Venus, no, Aphrodite. Your current friends are Greek."

"So?"

"Nothing wrong." Prance looked amused. "Is the friend related to Aphrodite her child?"

"Psyche is her mom. So, grandchild of Aphrodite," I answered.

"A niece, how wonderful."

I remembered the question Prance wanted to ask me earlier. "You had a question for me right?"

"Ah, about that. You have amnesia, so it would be pointless for me to ask." Prance waved it off.

"Well, what is it anyway?"

"I would have asked you to deliver some makeup to the Venus territory. Anyway, off you go." Prance waved his hand as if he was shooing a dog away.

"I can still deliver it," I said with confidence. Prance immediately shot me down.

"No, you can't. The Venus territory has been a little hostile towards me ever since I left and they would be very unwelcoming if you came there unannounced. With your memories, you could have easily done the task."

I smiled wryly, in defeat. "Alright then. Anyway, thanks, Prance. It's a prophecy and all, so I understand why you can't say more. I might visit you later."

"The pleasure is mine." Prance rummaged in his cabinet and picked out a small vial. "Oh, and here."

Prance tossed me the vial. The vial was small, and barely fit inside my hand. There was a label with the words, 'Prance Pheromones' on it. There was also fine print on the back: 'The producer of this product is not responsible for what the buyer does with this product. May it be murder, love, or worse.'

"Prance Pheromones?"

"I am a particularly special child of Venus. My scent or 'pheromones' can invigorate people. You will need it in your quest," Prance decided. He looked as if he had said that a thousand times before. I wondered how long he had been here.

"Thanks, Prance. If I regain my memory, I'll see if I can get you into a territory or something." I scratched my head and bowed. I shoved the pheromone bottle into my bag, next to the eyeshadow case and the golden apple.

"You don't need to. I left of my own volition," Prance said, with a forlorn look on his face. That look confirmed a lot of things I thought of him.

"You didn't," I laid down my answer. "I don't know why you were forced to leave, but I have a feeling I won't like the line of reasoning. When I regain my memory, I'll help you find a place where you belong."

Prance looked grateful. He didn't say anything back, letting me leave before things got awkward. I felt the door a little bit, reminding myself of its feel. A tree popped up in my head. A willow tree.

The willow tree. My mom had told me stories of it. How people used to gather under them, for any reason really. It was like a hearth, in a way. People gathered there for whatever they wanted. Be it for picnics, or for relaxing, or for cultural festivals. That reminded me of the Qingming Festival. A Chinese tradition.

The Qingming Festival is called Tomb-Sweeping Day or Ancestors' Day in english. People cleaned their ancestor' gravesites, prayed to them for guidance and made offerings to them. They carried willow branches with them to ward off evil spirits while cleaning. The willow branches were also hung on doors and gates. According to legend, the ruler of the underworld allowed the spirits of the dead to wander on earth on Qingming. That is why willow branches were used on that day. My mom has a willow branch in the front of her store and our house.

I remembered I told her to put it up. But, I forgot why. I was told to by a friend of mine, but I didn't remember who that was. He was close to me, maybe we were even romantically involved. Whoever he was, that was one more link to the past that I had to get back. And one more reason I had to survive this quest.

As I was leaving, I heard Prance mutter one last thing. "Thank you, Praetor of Jupiter."


End file.
